Anthropological literature on children and violence has been constrained by similar considerations that have limited an anthropology of childhood more generally, and by difficulties in conceptualizing children both as victims of violence and as violent themselves. A review of the anthropological literature on violence directed toward children reveals a litany of violence to which children may be subjected that includes child abuse and neglect, bullying, violent cultural rites, warfare, and structural violence stemming from poverty and inequality. Aggression in childhood has been the subject of a robust and long-standing literature that has examined socialization for or against aggressive behavior in children. An emerging literature considers children’s own violent behavior from the perspective of child agency. Children’s own voices and perspectives have been largely absent from the anthropological literature on childhood and violence. This review highlights several issues at the intersection of childhood and violence that demand a synthesis and reformulation in anthropology.
