The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook on the Psychology of Violence features a collection of original readings, from an international cast of experts, that explore all major issues relating to the psychology of violence and aggressive behaviors. Features original contributions from an interdisciplinary cast of scholars - leading experts in their fields of study Includes the latest violence research -- and its implications for practice and policy Offers coverage of current issues relating to violence such as online violence and cybercriminal behaviour Covers additional topics such as juvenile violence, sexual violence, family violence, and various violence issues relating to underserved and/or understudied populations.

Unlike the outcry over street crime committed by males, concerns about women and violence have centered primarily on their roles as victims of sexual and physical violence committed by strangers and by males in intimate relationships. Rarely is violence by women considered in the development or testing of theories of aggression.The book provides a detailed account of the criminal careers of 170 women who committed violent street crimes in New York City, describing their entry into criminal activities, their development into persistent street criminals, and, for some, their eventual transition out of street crime.Unlike other qualitative works in this area, "Casualties of Community Disorder" offers more than cultural analysis. Deborah Baskin and Ira Sommers integrate structural and individual levels of explanation by examining the career patterns of female violent offenders and the relationships of these women to family members and communities. Through the use of census data, analyses of political and economic changes, and ethnographic observations of activities specific to these communities, the authors provide a perspective on the relationship of individual decisions to structural constraints.The research presented here clearly challenges contemporary assumptions regarding female offending. Baskin and Sommers' analysis suggests a complex relationship of social and individual factors that serves as a caution against generic and gender-based generalizations that have been drawn from time-bound, aggregate level data sets and from ethnographies of women's involvement in street hustling. Finally, in "Casualties of Community Disorder, " the street drug and criminal subculture is understood through the words of those who usually are spoken for, studied, and objectified.

Violence in southern Africa has occurred in a variety of modes including ethnic confrontation, liberation struggles and cross-border aggression and crime. This volume examines the degree to which violence - however defined - has influenced political change across the region. The contributions include analyses of the ramifications of violent disorder in Angola and Mozambique, the impact on the political economy of both states and the prospects for lasting peace following the end of civil war.

Violence in southern Africa has occurred in a variety of modes including ethnic confrontation, liberation struggles and cross-border aggression and crime. This volume examines the degree to which violence - however defined - has influenced political change across the region. The contributions include analyses of the ramifications of violent disorder in Angola and Mozambique, the impact on the political economy of both states and the prospects for lasting peace following the end of civil war.

As the fear of violent crime escalates, many inhabitants of the British Isles are calling for the police to carry guns. Others, however, remain strongly opposed to the concept of the police being regularly armed when on duty. In particular, they believe that the UK could follow the American example, with a horrifying increase in shootings.

Essays reflecting on our understanding and moral judgement of violence. The essays argue that even serious violence is not a simple fact, but a category of thought and practice rooted in history, culture and society.

This volume, newly published in paperback, is part of a comprehensive effort by R. J. Rummel to understand and place in historical perspective the entire subject of genocide and mass murder, or what he calls democide. It is the fifth in a series of volumes in which he offers a detailed analysis of the 120,000,000 people killed as a result of government action or direct intervention.

In Power Kills, Rummel offers a realistic and practical solution to war, democide, and other collective violence. As he states it, "The solution...is to foster democratic freedom and to democratize coercive power and force. That is, mass killing and mass murder carried out by government is a result of indiscriminate, irresponsible Power at the center."

Rummel observes that well-established democracies do not make war on and rarely commit lesser violence against each other. The more democratic two nations are, the less likely is war or smaller-scale violence between them. The more democratic a nation is, the less severe its overall foreign violence, the less likely it will have domestic collective violence, and the less its democide. Rummel argues that the evidence supports overwhelmingly the most important fact of our time: democracy is a method of nonviolence.

Essays reflecting on our understanding and moral judgement of violence. The essays argue that even serious violence is not a simple fact, but a category of thought and practice rooted in history, culture and society.

As the fear of violent crime escalates, many inhabitants of the British Isles are calling for the police to carry guns. Others, however, remain strongly opposed to the concept of the police being regularly armed when on duty. In particular, they believe that the UK could follow the American example, with a horrifying increase in shootings.

This volume's central purpose is to provide a clearly written, scholarly exploration of cultural variation regarding conflict resolution and in so doing, highlight certain alternatives to violence. It presents an interdisciplinary examination of how conflicts are perceived and handled in a variety of cultural settings. Drawing on data and models from anthropology, psychology, and political science, the chapters analyze conflict resolution across the societal spectrum, including cases from Western and non-Western traditions, complex and tribal societies, and violent and non-violent cultures. While demonstrating the extremely important impact of culture on conflict resolution processes, the book does not solely emphasize cultural specificity. Rather--through introductory chapters, section introductions, and a concluding chapter--the volume editors draw attention to cross-cultural patterns in an attempt to further the search for more general conflict principles.
An explicit message throughout the book is that alternatives to violence exist. The volume demonstrates that at various levels--from the interpersonal to the international-- conflicts can be handled in ways that cause far less pain and destruction than violence. Chapters by psychologists discuss social and cognitive processes for facilitating the learning of alternatives to violence among children and youth. Anthropology contributors explore mechanisms for dealing with social conflict which allow some cultures to remain relatively peaceful and consider implications of their work for reducing violence in other societies. Chapters by former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, and by political scientists examine how non-violent political solutions can be employed as alternatives to warfare and violent resistence.

This volume's central purpose is to provide a clearly written, scholarly exploration of cultural variation regarding conflict resolution and in so doing, highlight certain alternatives to violence. It presents an interdisciplinary examination of how conflicts are perceived and handled in a variety of cultural settings. Drawing on data and models from anthropology, psychology, and political science, the chapters analyze conflict resolution across the societal spectrum, including cases from Western and non-Western traditions, complex and tribal societies, and violent and non-violent cultures. While demonstrating the extremely important impact of culture on conflict resolution processes, the book does not solely emphasize cultural specificity. Rather--through introductory chapters, section introductions, and a concluding chapter--the volume editors draw attention to cross-cultural patterns in an attempt to further the search for more general conflict principles.
An explicit message throughout the book is that alternatives to violence exist. The volume demonstrates that at various levels--from the interpersonal to the international-- conflicts can be handled in ways that cause far less pain and destruction than violence. Chapters by psychologists discuss social and cognitive processes for facilitating the learning of alternatives to violence among children and youth. Anthropology contributors explore mechanisms for dealing with social conflict which allow some cultures to remain relatively peaceful and consider implications of their work for reducing violence in other societies. Chapters by former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, and by political scientists examine how non-violent political solutions can be employed as alternatives to warfare and violent resistence.

This text examines the negative practices of schools which are resulting in school systems failing students. Such practices include intrusive authoritarian administrative structures and procedures; inappropriate discipline; unrealistic expectations; and placid exceptance of exclusionary practices. Indeed, educational systemic violence includes any practice or procedure that prevents students from learning, thus harming them.

Taking a close look at ways in which current social problems may be a result of, or even supported by, compulsory schooling, the contributors to this volume consider whether or not schools contribute to the violence amongst modern young people.

Military intelligence, grossly neglected during the interwar period, had by mid-1942 proved itself indispensable through information gathered from intercepted radio messages in the supposedly unbreakable German Enigma cipher. Ralph Bennett, who worked for four years at Bletchley Park as a senior producer of the intelligence (Ultra') derived from the Enigma decrypts, illustrates in this collection of reprinted essays some of the steps by which he and others developed the new type of information and in the process a candid glimpse of the workings of British intelligence both past and present.

Conceived at a time when biological research on aggression and violence was drawn into controversy because of sociopolitical questions about its study, this volume provides an up-to-date account of recent biological studies performed -- mostly on humans. A group of scientists recognized the importance of freedom of inquiry and deemed it vital to address the most promising biological research in the field. The focus on biological mechanisms is not meant to imply that biological variables are paramount as a determinant of violence. Rather, biological variables operate in conjunction with other variables contributing to aggression or violence, and a complete understanding of this phenomenon requires consideration of all influences bearing on it.
This book will familiarize readers with the rapidly growing and increasingly significant body of knowledge on the biological bases of human antisocial, aggressive, and violent behaviors. The editors concentrated on biological influences that support the basic physiological and biochemical processes of the brain and did not cover those biological influences that impact on the health of the individual such as head injury, pregnancy and birth complications, diet, and exposure to lead and other toxins. They focused on biological influences to illuminate their role in the complex behavioral phenomenon of violence.
Three different approaches to the biological study of human antisocial, aggressive, and violent behaviors are represented -- genetic, neurobiological, and biosocial. Representing each of these three approaches, individual chapters from investigators in psychobiology, biological psychiatry, and basic-clinical neurosciences address the most recent experimental findings, methods, theory, and common misconceptions in the biological study of aggression and violence. The areas of primary focus are behavior and molecular genetics, neurochemistry and hormones, neuroimaging, psychophysiology and developmental psychobiology. Generally speaking, investigators following these different approaches have experience in different scientific backgrounds, select different methods, generate different analyses, employ different conceptual definitions for some of the same terms, and assume a different philosophical stance in attempting to explain violence. Nevertheless, all are united in their efforts to understand the biological underpinnings of violence. This book then assumes a comprehensive approach wherein different levels of analysis and different approaches inform each other. It is clear from the studies reported that aggression and violence are multidetermined phenomena and understanding them requires an interdisciplinary approach spanning economic, sociopolitical, psychological, sociological, and criminological as well as biomedical considerations. Nature (biology) and nurture (experience, context) are fundamentally inseparable in explaining aggression and violence; biology may affect experience or context, but experience or context also influences biology. Both need to be studied in a search for explanations of this phenomena.

Racist Violence and the State is the first serious study to apply a comparative research-based approach to the study of racist violence in Britain, France and The Netherlands since 1945. Setting racist violence within a historical background of the post-imperialist legacy, the author presents an accessible, fascinating and highly original analysis of the development of public and state attitudes to racist violence over the past 50 years.

As the world approaches the year 2000, many societies are experiencing an unprecedented growth in millenarian movements that anticipate an imminent and total transformation of the world. Many of these movements have been associated with violence, either as a means for producing change or as a response to confrontations with state authority. This book draws together research on this topic from political science, psychology, sociology and history in an attempt to understand the relationship between millenarian movements and episodes of violence.

Managing Violence in the Workplace is a prescription that contains many lists of "do's" and "don'ts" and "how to's" for proactive and reactive responses to workplace violence. The authors have analyzed numerous incidents in the workplace and constructed "how to" guidelines. Be prepared for managing workplace violence. Develop procedures to reduce the potential for violence, create contingency plans, fulfill your legal and moral obligation to employees and the public, reduce your company's liability, and provide a safer environment for all.

Who can benefit from Managing Violence in the Workplace? Any organizational executive, risk manager, security, or human resource professional... anyone working to create a comprehensive, organizational program for response to potential and actual incidents of workplace violence.

Examines how youth is being increasingly subjected to racial stereotyping and violence in various realms of popular culture, especially childrens' culture.

Are representations of violence in youth culture racially coded? Does 'urban youth' mean 'black criminals'? What are the social and political implications of stylized, cinematic violence? Fugitive Cultures examines the racist and sexist assault on today's youth which is being played out in the realms of popular and children's culture. Carefully interrogating the aesthetic of violence in a number of public arenas - talk radio, Disney animation, and in such films as Pulp Fiction, Kids, Slackers and Juice - Giroux challenges cultural workers and other progressives to help reverse the attack on those who are most powerless in American society.

While the causes of rampage violence have been analysed thoroughly in diverse academic disciplines, we hardly know anything about the factors that affect their consequences for public policy. This book addresses rampage shootings in Western Europe and their conditional impact on politicization and policy change in the area of gun control. The author sets out to unravel the factors that facilitate or impede the access of gun control to the political agenda in the wake of rampage shootings and analyses why some political debates lead to profound shifts of the policy status quo, while others peter out without any legislative reactions. In so doing, the book not only contributes to the theoretical literature on crisis-induced policy making, but also provides a wealth of case-study evidence on rampage shootings as empirical phenomena. In particular, the extent to which gun control gets politicized as a policy failure can either result from a bottom-up process (event severity and media pressure) or from a top-down logic (issue ownership and the electoral cycle). Including 12 case studies on the rampage shootings which have triggered a debate over the appropriateness of the affected countries gun policies, it illustrates that the way political processes unfold after rampage shootings depends strongly on specific causal configurations and draws comparisons between the cases covered in the book and the way rampage shootings are typically dealt with in the United States. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of public policy, policy analysis, European Politics and more broadly to comparative politics, criminology, psychology, and sociology. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315209425, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Psychopathy: The Basics is an accessible text that provides a compact introduction to the major findings and debates concerning this complex personality disorder.

This book provides an overview of the field and covers a wide range of research findings from genetics to psychosocial developmental explanations. It begins with an exploration of the historical conception of the phenomenon of psychopathy and goes on to discuss its social and cultural accounts. It also delves into biologically based explanations including genetic and evolutionary approaches, along with criminological and entrepreneurial types of psychopathy. Offering a balanced perspective, thisbook addresses the nature-nurture debate in the field and also discusses widely accepted personality traits of psychopaths. Lastly, it also provides a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading

This book will be an essential read for students of forensic psychology, or criminology. It is also an ideal starting point for those interested in the science of psychopathy and personality disorders.

Table of Contents

What is psychopathy: Definitions and history of the conception

Implications of measurement in shaping our understanding of psychopathy

Explanations: Social, psychological and cultural

Explanations: Biological

Explanations: Personality-Psychopathy interaction

Explanations: Developmental pathway and continuity

Criminal and entrepreneurial psychopaths

Psychopaths living among us

Can they change their spots?

Glossary

References

This volume includes five case studies on war and the military in the USSR, Russia and Yugoslavia. It argues that the armed forces were at the core of socialist statehood and that their role and their change in late socialism and post-Communism are thus far understudied. Discussing the similarities as well as the differences between the Soviet, the Russian, and the Yugoslav case, the introduction seeks new explanations for war and military violence in these countries. Rather than pointing exclusively to ethnic mobilization and nationalism, it views the transformation and collapse of the Communist party-state and its army as a precondition for violence and civil war. It places these cases using innovative methodological approaches to the research on physical violence, war, and military. These studies explore the experience and the representation of violence, army service, combat, and war in late socialism and scrutinize individual actors and their behaviour within violent spaces. In retrospect the emerging wars in the post-Soviet space - from Chechnya to the Donbas - and in Yugoslavia are at least as crucial for the region as Gorbachev's reforms. They help to better understand the conflicts of the present in the post-Soviet space. This book was originally published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.

Addressing the relationship between masculinity, war, and violence, this book covers these themes broadly and across different disciplines. These analyses are located at different levels: public policies at the macro level; resistance and independence movements at the meso level; and masculine subjectivities, processes of mobilization, and radicalization at the micro level. The ten contributions encompass four recurring themes: violent masculinities and how contemporary societies and regimes cope with traditional violent rituals and extreme violence against women; popular written and visual fiction about war and masculine rationalities; gender relations in social movements of rebellion and national transformation; and masculinity in civil society under conditions of war and post-war. Taking into account different geographical contexts, the book emphasizes the relationship between the local and the global as well as the importance of understanding gender and masculinity in their intersectional interrelations with religion, race, ethnicity, class, and locality. This book was originally published as a special issue of NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies.

Perhaps one-fifth of all marriages are tainted by violence, and an equal number of children are harmed by parents. Abuse of elderly relatives is just beginning to be recognized as a major social problem, but the most common form of family violence occurs between siblings. "Violence Within the Family" connects the study of child, partner, sibling, and elderly abuse to the varied disciplinary perspectives of social psychology, drawing on research on aggression, attitude formation and change, self-perception, social cognition, gender roles, and group dynamics. The book covers the biological and social causes of aggression, the consequences of violence towards an intimate family member, and prevention and treatment strategies.Sharon Herzberger also addresses important policy issues and explores today's hard questions: Does a child who is abused grow up to become an abuser? Can anyone, given the right circumstances, inflict violence on a family member? Why do victims of partner abuse remain with the perpetrator? Should we arrest perpetrators of family violence, and under what conditions does arrest do more harm than good? Why can't we prosecute family violence more effectively?Answering widespread interest in this compelling topic, Herzberger's book will appeal to laypeople and professionals in criminal justice, family systems, public policy, psychology, and sociology. It will also serve as a valuable text for advanced courses or as a supplementary text for introductory courses.

In the ancient world, war played a crucial part in shaping and changing social and political structures. The impact of war on the ancient societies of the Mediterranean world is the subject of this book and its companion, "War and Society in the Roman World". The authors have drawn together a collection which extends beyond the traditional emphasis on political causes, tactics and strategy, and military organization. Instead, warfare is viewed as a species of social action, affecting and affected by social conditions and ideology, and having social, economic, and cultural consequences. This conception of warfare as a social agency is considered through examination of the causes of war, booty, slavery and other profits of war and their effects in Greek societies; war in literature and sculpture, including ideology of victory and warrior; and the critical construction of the image of the enemy.