Young Men Who Saw or Suffered Violence as Children More Often Commit It: Eight Countries

In brief

• In low- and middle-income countries, men aged 18–24 commit a disproportionate share of many kinds of interpersonal violence.
• In surveys of young men in eight countries in 2018–2023, lifetime violence perpetration ranged from 12.4% in Eswatini to 44.9% in Côte d'Ivoire.
• Having suffered physical violence or witnessed violence at home or in the community before 18 was linked to higher odds of committing violence in most countries.
• Reducing children's exposure to violence may reduce violence by young men and make communities safer for everyone.

The surveys

Since 2007, CDC — as part of the Together for Girls partnership — has worked with more than 20 countries on the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS): nationally representative household surveys of people aged 13–24, with privacy protections and a plan to connect participants who need them to support services. This analysis used men aged 18–24 in Colombia (2019), Côte d'Ivoire (2018), Eswatini (2022), Jamaica (2023), Kenya (2019), Moldova (2019), Mozambique (2019) and Namibia (2019) — from 353 to 733 men per country. Male response rates ranged from 45.5% (Moldova) to 87.7% (Côte d'Ivoire).

Violence perpetration meant ever having used physical violence (slapping, pushing, punching, kicking, beating, choking, burning, or threatening with or using a weapon) or forcing someone to have sex, against a partner or anyone else. Childhood exposure covered emotional, physical and sexual violence suffered before 18, and witnessing a mother or stepmother beaten, siblings beaten by a parent, or anyone attacked outside the home. The models adjusted for age, schooling, marriage or cohabitation, and food insecurity (not available for Colombia).

What they found

Childhood exposure was common:

So was perpetration: physical or sexual violence ranged from 12.4% (Eswatini) to 44.9% (Côte d'Ivoire). Physical violence was more common than sexual violence everywhere; nonpartner sexual violence was under 3% in every country, while intimate partner sexual violence was highest in Côte d'Ivoire (8.5%) and Namibia (7.2%).

The links: after adjusting for demographics and other exposures, suffering physical violence as a child was significantly associated with committing violence in every country except Mozambique, and witnessing violence in five of the eight.

What it means

The findings match other evidence from low- and middle-income settings that men's violence can begin in adolescence and young adulthood, and that violence in childhood — at home or in the community — is a risk factor for men's violence as adults.

Prevention can include enforcing laws against violence toward children; changing social norms that accept men's violence; safe environments for young people; family economic security; better access to health, social welfare and justice services; and education and life-skills training. School- and sports-based mentoring, after-school programs, safe transport, and a trauma-guided approach to stopping perpetration may also help.

Limitations: the surveys are cross-sectional, so the order of events cannot be established; they do not capture the timing, severity or frequency of childhood violence; Colombia's models lack food insecurity; a skip error in Kenya's survey probably undercounted physical violence perpetration; answers are self-reported; and small samples kept physical and sexual, partner and nonpartner violence from being analyzed separately.

Sources

Based on Stephanie Spaid Miedema and others, "Prevalence of Violence Perpetration by Men Aged 18–24 Years in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Who Were Exposed to Violence During Childhood — Eight Countries, 2018–2023," MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, volume 75, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The report's abstract says childhood physical violence or witnessing violence was linked to perpetration "in all eight countries," but its results give every country except Mozambique for physical violence and five of eight for witnessing; this page follows the results.