Managing murder - Parents as mediators of children's experience

This investigation is a case study of the responses of children and their parents to a murder in their neighborhood. Through participant observation and intensive interviews with parents, the authors describe hew parents took action both collectively and individually to manage their children's fears and to find meaning in an act of unusual brutality and deceit The authors anticipated correctly that this study could provide an opportunity to examine the potential impact of distal violence on middle-class children An unanticipated outcome was the substantial effect of the homicide an the neighborhood parents themselves as reflected in their sense-making activities that continued long after the resolution of the murder itself.