Each chapter in this volume poses a public policy issue related to violence, describes aspects of evolutionary psychology that are relative, and then posits public policy recommendations based on this psychological model. Topics covered also include psychopathy, despotism, and suicide bombings. This volume is designed as an accessible way for policymakers outside of academia to learn about new theoretical developments.

Evolutionary psychology--a relatively new theoretical model of psychology--provides valuable and exciting insights on human violence and public policy issues related to human violence, from war and terrorism to rape and criminality. To this end, each chapter in this volume poses a public policy issues related to violence, describes aspects of evolutionary psychology that are relative and then posits public policy recommendations based on this psychological model. Topics covered also include psycopathy, despotism, and suicide bombings. This volume, designed as an accessible way for policymakers outside of academia to learn about new theoretical developments, also explodes the myths about evolutionary psychology, such as the false claim that it justifies immoral behavior or focuses only on humans' ugly underbelly.

While appealing to policymakers across foundations and agencies, this collection will also interest scholars and teachers focused on evolutionary psychology, public policy, criminal justice, security, public affairs, sociology, and anthropology.

Covering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, this volume explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. By situating incidents in particular processes and conflicts, the case studies seek to counter notions of a violent Middle East in order to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act. Contributions explore processes sparked by the transition from empires - Ottoman and Qajar, but also European - to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.

Authors from a variety of disciplines dealing with diverse historical cases engage with the spatial deployment of violence and the possibilities for memory and resistance in contexts of state sponsored violence, enforced disappearances and regimes of exception. Contributors include Aleida Assmann, Jay Winter and David Harvey.

Vandalism and Anti-Social Behaviour forwards a new typology of vandalism. The authors argue that in order to fully understand vandalism and anti-social behaviour, a culturally criminological perspective should be fostered, which accounts for the emotional and experiential aspects of crime.

Antisocial behaviors including bullying, violence, and aggression have been an area of intense interest among researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and the general public because of their grievous consequences on individuals and society. Our understanding of the origins and development of these behaviors in individuals has recently progressed with the application of new scientific advancements and technologies such as neuroimaging, genomics, and research methods that capture behavioral changes in the first few years of life.
The Origins of Antisocial Behavior: A Developmental Perspective provides an overview of the recent research on the development of antisocial behavior and synthesizes this information to inform readers not only of the risks, but also how they interact, to result in antisocial and aggressive behavior. The volume is divided into three sections: advances in neuroscience, advances in behavioral and clinical research, and legal and policy implications. Specific topics include genetic markers and aggressive behavior, the use of fMRI to track adolescent brain development, the role of peer influences on aggression, parenting and temperament, screening tools for diagnosing antisocial behavior in toddlers and adolescents, and how new research will influence interventions, policy, and future study. Experts from genetics, neuroimaging, and developmental science discuss the insights these scientific approaches have provided in understanding how nature and the environment interact in the emergence of antisocial behavior. The Origins of Antisocial Behavior is an important and unique resource that will be of use to developmental scientists, mental health professionals, and policymakers involved in the juvenile justice system.

This book brings specialists in religious studies, African-American studies, history, and political science, together with a media librarian to examine violence as it is presented in films and how instructors can use films to teach about violence. The object of inquiry is the vulnerability of socially oppressed people to physical violence and to institutionalized patterns of discrimination, herein termed structural violence. The susceptibility of women to violence provides an example that is discussed in detail, revealing both merits and weaknesses in film treatment of gender. The full effect of violence is considered, from the abuse of the individual to the wartime mobilization of entire societies. Chapters also look at the benefits and problems of using films in the classroom and provide resources helpful to instructors, such as sample discussion and study guides, a bibliography, and a filmography.

This book studies how religion influences the way people in Colombia remember a massacre of 79 civilians that occurred in a Catholic church in 2002. It analyses how strategies of memorialisation are part of religious peacebuilding initiatives that aim to resist and denounce crimes against human, ethnic, cultural and economic rights.

Youth violence has become a concern as gangs become a popular option for urban children and teenagers and weapons use among young populations becomes more prevalent. Exploring the psychological motivations and foundations upon which such violence is developed and cultivated can assist in better understanding the modern dilemma of violence, weapons use, and gang behavior among children, teenagers, and young adults. Psychological Perspectives on Youth Gang Behavior, Violence, and Weapons Use reconsiders the traditional understandings of youth violence in various forms, such as gang activities, criminal behavior, and weapons use. Focusing on the psychosocial elements of violence among children, teenagers, and young adults, this timely publication is ideally designed for use by policy makers and government executives, professionals, educators, and graduate-level students involved in psychology, criminology, social work, and criminal justice studies.

In the past 20 years, the victims' rights movement has gathered momentum, often succeeding in its attempts to turn the tables on laws and legislation that traditionally loaded the scales of justice in favor of criminal defendants. Victims' Rights explores this movement and its implications in detail for the first time. It answers questions vital to every U.S. citizen such as: What is the criminal justice system? What is the role of the victim in that system? How has this role changed in recent years? What are society's attitudes toward victims' and defendants' rights? Why is there a push for a constitutional amendment regarding the rights of victims? This volume answers all these questions and more. It is rounded out by a chronology, biographical sketches, documents, court cases, legislation, an annotated directory of victim and defendant advocate organizations, and a general index for easy access to further research. Includes an annotated directory of victim and defendant advocate organizations, documents, court cases, and legislation Provides an extensive chronology and biographical sketches

A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day. American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia ranges from Western outlaws revered as Robin Hoods to the Depression's flamboyant bootleggers and bank robbers to the late 20th century's drug kingpins and "Dapper Dons." It is the first comprehensive resource on the gangster's historical evolution and unshakable grip on the American imagination. American Gangsters, Then and Now tells the stories of a number of famous gangsters and gangs-Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the Black Hand, Al Capone, Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels, the Mafia, Crips and Bloods, and more. Avoiding sensationalism, the straightforward entries include biographical portraits and historical background for each subject, as well as accounts of infamous robberies, killings, and other events, all well documented with both archival newspapers and extensive research into the files of the FBI. Readers will understand the families, the places, and the times that produced these monumental criminals, as well as the public mindset that often found them sympathetic and heroic. Comprises 50 alphabetically organized entries on American gangsters and gangs from the post-Civil War era to the present Offers a wealth of primary sources, including newspaper articles dating back to the 1880s and FBI files obtained by the author Includes photographs of prominent American gangsters and the aftermaths of their crimes Presents a glossary of gangster slang, past and present Provides a comprehensive index

The man who revolutionized the way we think about baseball examines our cultural obsession with murder--delivering a unique, engrossing, brilliant history of tabloid crime in America.
Celebrated writer and contrarian Bill James has voraciously read true crime throughout his life and has been interested in writing a book on the topic for decades. With "Popular Crime, "James takes readers on an epic journey from Lizzie Borden to the Lindbergh baby, from the Black Dahlia to O. J. Simpson, explaining how crimes have been committed, investigated, prosecuted and written about, and how that has profoundly influenced our culture over the last few centuries--even if we haven't always taken notice.
Exploring such phenomena as serial murder, the fluctuation of crime rates, the value of evidence, radicalism and crime, prison reform and the hidden ways in which crimes have shaped, or reflected, our society, James chronicles murder and misdeeds from the 1600s to the present day. James pays particular attention to crimes that were sensations during their time but have faded into obscurity, as well as still-famous cases, some that have never been solved, including the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Boston Strangler and JonBenet Ramsey. Satisfyingly sprawling and tremendously entertaining, "Popular Crime "is a professed amateur's powerful examination of the incredible impact crime stories have on our society, culture and history.

Collective experiences in the former Yugoslavia documents and analyses how social representations and practices are shaped by collective violence in a context of ethnic discourse. What are the effects of violence and what are the effects of collectively experienced victimisation on societal norms, attitudes and collective beliefs? This volume stresses that mass violence has a de- and re-structuring role for manifold psychosocial processes. A combined psychosocial approach draws attention to how most people in the former Yugoslavia had to endure and cope with war and dramatic societal changes and how they resisted and overcame ethnic rivalry, violence and segregation. It is a departure from the mindset that depict most people in the former Yugoslavia as either blind followers of ethnic war entrepreneurs or as intrinsically motivated for violence by deep-rooted intra-ethnic loyalties and inter-ethnic animosities.

The Holocaust, civil war in Bosnia, drug wars in the cities, random violence in schools, streets, and homes - such events and their aftermath pose special problems for mental health professionals, educators, and others who must help children make sense of acts that endanger them physically and psychically. In this book, edited by Drs. Roberta J. Apfel and Bennett Simon, mental health professionals share their knowledge, experiences, and hopefulness in working with children exposed to war and violence. The result is a moving history of young lives affected by war, persecution, and communal violence, and an invaluable resource for anyone working with children subjected to such traumas. The contributors to this book - who include psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, all with direct experience working with children who are victims of war and violence - address the ethics involved in working with children in war zones, children's development under circumstances of war or violence, post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress reactions, refugee children, "survivor guilt", interventions and treatments, and the emotional health of the caretakers. The book includes case studies on children of war in Kuwait, on a program involving children of Holocaust survivors and children of Nazi perpetrators, and on the Child Development-Community Policing Program in New Haven.

This invaluable one-stop reference source supplies students and general readers with historical and current information on the victims' rights revolution in the United States, providing analysis on everything from human rights reports to Supreme Court cases that allows the reader to fully understand these documents. Victims' rights represent the greatest change in the criminal justice system within the last 30 years. Victims' Rights: A Documentary and Reference Guide traces the origins, evolution, and results of the victims' rights movement. It puts victims' rights in a legal, historical, and contemporary context, and comprehensively collects important victims' rights documents in a single volume-perfect for students as well as general readers. Bringing together dozens of varied documents such as presidential task force reports and recommendations, Supreme Court cases, state constitutions, human rights reports, critical articles, and political documents, this book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the origins and modern consequences of American victims' rights policy. The author's accompanying commentary and analysis helps the reader to gain a complete comprehension of the significance of these documents, while numerous bibliographic sources provide additional resources for interested readers. Many primary source documents, such as the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime A focused bibliography follows each chapter An index offers easy access to documents and analysis

The increased targeting of civilians by militants raises serious and profound questions for policy-makers. Examining conflict in Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, this book focuses on ethno-nationalist militant groups and formulates a model to constrain violence against civilians.

Lasley shows how American culture fosters selfishness, aggression, and violence. He believes that selflessness can and should be taught in the home and in the schools as an antidote to the individualism and tribalism that multicultural diversity can lead to. Without a certain cultural and personal respect for the other, the myriad racial, ethnic, and ideological differences could tear American society apart. Lasley uses ethnological examples of non-Western societies that stress nonviolence to elucidate models of peaceful behavior. He provides ways and means of teaching peaceful principles by using the literature of altruism and the images of service and other-directed activities.

Violence is most common when there is a power disparity between two groups of people, and those with less power are far more likely to become the victim in a violent situation. Environment has as much influence on whether or not violence will occur as the person or people involved, and this relationship has drawn the attention of researchers worldwide. Globalization and Its Impact on Violence Against Vulnerable Groups is an essential source that provides research that delves deeply into occurrences of violence and the environmental and personal influences that lead to violence in order to better understand and prevent it from happening. Featuring a wide range of topics such as e-blackmail, human displacement, and psychology, this book is ideal for criminologists, law enforcement, psychologists, therapists, academicians, sociologists, anthropologists, government officials, researchers, and students.

The behavior and safety of children and young people in and around schools is a topic of world-wide concern. From school shootings and deaths on school premises to the everyday behavior of young people in school, this book explores what is happening in schools in Britain and links it with evidence from elsewhere in the world.

This examination of youth violence provides readers with insights from international experts and real-life examples of how nations and communities around the world have successfully dealt with the issue. The magnitude of the problem of youth violence in nations throughout the world is shocking. What is encouraging is that strategies to combat this issue do appear to work. For example, community-based restorative justice programs in Northern Ireland reduced retaliatory strikes by paramilitary youth groups by 75 percent, and research trials of policy and intervention strategies, such as parent training and early childhood education, have been shown to significantly reduce youth violence. This text offers a comprehensive overview of youth violence, including background information that defines the problem internationally, a conceptual framework for understanding approaches to youth violence, examinations of multiple case studies, and examples of prevention programs. The final section presents conclusions and suggested strategies for dealing with interpersonal violence and recommendations for future policy. Contains contributions from over 20 international experts describing measures to address youth violence within the political, social, cultural, and economic contexts of their environments 12 case studies illustrate the various conceptual and programmatic approaches for understanding, preventing, and reducing youth violence in various countries Over 50 citations of seminal research and programmatic works in the areas of public health, restorative justice, and resilience-based approaches to youth violence

McDowell and Braniff explore the relationship between commemoration and conflict in societies which have engaged in peace processes, attempting to unpack the ways in which the practices of memory and commemoration influence efforts to bring armed conflict to an end and whether it can even reactivate conflict as political circumstances change.

Violence against women is a major problem in all countries, affecting women in every socio-economic group and at every life stage. Nowhere in the world do women share equal social and economic rights with men or the same access as men to productive resources. Economic globalization and development are creating new challenges for women's rights as well as some new opportunities for advancing women's economic independence and gender equality. Yet, when women have access to productive resources and they enjoy social and economic rights they are less vulnerable to violence across all societies. The Political Economy of Violence against Women develops a feminist political economy approach to identify the linkages between different forms of violence against women and macro structural processes in strategic local and global sites - from the household to the transnational level. In doing so, it seeks to account for the globally increasing scale and brutality of violence against women. These sites include economic restructuring and men's reaction to the loss of secure employment, the abusive exploitation associated with the transnational migration of women workers, the growth of a sex trade around the creation of free trade zones, the spike in violence against women in financial liberalization and crises, the scourge of sexual violence in armed conflict and post-crisis peacebuilding or reconstruction efforts and the deleterious gendered impacts of natural disasters. Examples are drawn from South Africa, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, the Pacific Islands, Argentina, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Iceland.