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Copyright 2002 Wilderness Peacemaking Introduction A wilderness leader may have to deal with disruptive, violent, or out-of-control behavior within the group1 under a variety of circumstances. Such behavioral crises can occur, for example, when leading adjudicated or at-risk youth in the wilderness, especially if they are in the group against their will or as an alternative to juvenile detention. Some trips involve groups who are in the wilderness specifically to heal wounds, such as sexual assault, or to deal with stressful personal transitions such as aging, divorce, career change, or bereavement. For persons who are experiencing such stressors, the addition of just one more problem into their already unstable life situation may be sufficient to precipitate an episode of disruptive or violent behavior. With any group, the stresses of being in the wilderness – ranging all the way from simple unfamiliarity to perceived life threats – can cause ordinarily rational and controlled people to resort to out-of-control or assaultive behavior. This paper is intended to provide, first, a framework for approaching such crises in a wilderness group, which we call the peacemaking perspective; and, second, a set of practical tools for preventing such crises, keeping them from escalating when they occur, and, after they are over, healing the wounds they inflict on the group.2 Notes 1 This discussion focuses on disruptive, violent, and out-of-control behavior within the wilderness group. A stranger encountered on the trail may, for whatever reason, become verbally or physically assaultive, which raises a very different set of questions. One of the few books to deal with the problem of crime and self-defense in the wilderness is Bane (2000). 2 The effects of chronic stress have been studied in a number of contexts – for example, after shipwrecks, airplane accidents, and other disasters (Leach, 1994). One of the principal sources for understanding chronic stress is military combat, and two U.S. Army field manuals (Department of the Army, 1994; Department of the Army, 1998) have provided much of the basis of this discussion. See also the discussion of stress in the wilderness context in Graham (1997, pp. 136-145), and the discussion of crisis management in adventure education in Berman, Davis-Berman, and Gillen (1998). Siebert (1996) spent more than forty years puzzling over the question of who survives under extreme conditions and who does not. Research on World War II combat survivors led him to conclude that survivors tend to be those who respond to chronic stress with humor, wisdom, and mental and emotional flexibility – that is, those who have the greatest repertoire of available coping mechanisms. < Previous Next > | ||
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