Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective Responsibility offers a unique layperson's introduction to the scope and causes of violence and trauma theory and suggests ways we can all work to attack these causes. Upon completing this work, you will have a better understanding of the social causes of the violence epidemic and concrete suggestions for its long-term control.Bearing Witness addresses the cycle of violence by discussing some of the biological, psychological, social, and moral issues that go into determining whether a person will end up as a victim, perpetrator, or bystander to violent events and what happens to us when we are in one or all three of these roles. The authors look at a number of intersecting factors that play interdependent roles in creating a culture that promotes, supports, and even encourages violence. Specifically, you'll gain invaluable insight into: trauma theory and traumatogenic forces--backdrops against which the chances of exposure to violence and the use of violence as a problemsolver are increased normal human development in the context of attachment theory and what occurs as a result of disrupted attachment bonds how rapid changes in modern society and the breakdown of the traditional family structure contribute to a level of social stress that promotes violence violence in the family, in the workplace, and in the schools--all places to which people turn for security social responses to violence--the ways in which certain responses decrease or increase the likelihood of violence the unhealthy balance of power between the genders and how violence or the threat of violence maintains this imbalance how our cultural standard of disavowing our normal emotional experience sets the stage for repeated and regular empathic failure, which leads to violenceA framework for understanding the various aspects of the problem of violence, Bearing Witness delves into the various aspects of trauma--what trauma does to the body, the mind, the emotions, and relationships--before beginning to formulate proposals for initiating processes that lead to problemsolving. Once this knowledge base has been established, the authors give you the beginnings of an outline for reorganizing society with the aim of establishing a community that is responsive to the basic human need for safety and peace.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Violence directed at victimized groups because of their real or imagined characteristics is as old as humankind. Why, then, have "hate crimes" only recently become recog-nized as a serious social problem, especially in the United States? This book addresses a timely set of questions about the politics and dynamics of intergroup violence manifested as discrimination. It explores such issues as why injuries against some groups of people--Jews, people of color, gays and lesbians, and, on occasion, women and those with dis-abilities--have increasingly captured notice, while similar acts of bias-motivated violence continue to go unnoticed.

The authors offer empirically grounded, theoretically in-formed answers to the question: How is social change on this order possible? Their analysis of the dynamics draws upon three established traditions: the social constructionist approach; new social movements theory; and the new institutionalist approach to understanding change as a process of innovation and diffusion of cultural forms. In this case, new social movements have converged of late to sustain public discussions that put into question issues of "rights" and "harm" as they relate to a variety of minority constituencies.

The authors couple their general discussion with close attention to many particular anti-violence projects. They thereby develop a compelling theoretical argument about the social processes through which new social problems emerge, social policy is developed and diffused, and new cultural forms are institutionalized.

A nonviolent environment provides many benefits to its population. Although all industries can reap the rewards of nonviolence, its positive impacts can particularly be examined in applied disciplines like conflict resolution, child development, criminal justice, and social work. Creating a Sustainable Vision of Nonviolence in Schools and Society is a unique reference source that discusses the value that nonviolent spaces can add to educational institutions and societies. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant topics including conflict skills, intersectional dialogue, mentoring, co-existence, and police brutality, this is an outstanding resource of academic material for educators, academicians, graduate students, and researchers seeking to expand their knowledge on nonviolent methods and techniques for educational environments.

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.

Winner of the Sunday Times Literary Award for non-fiction.

‘A truly stunning book.’ - Jacob Dlamini
‘… meticulously researched and most unsettling yet compelling …’ - Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Sunday, 9 November 1952. It should be remembered as a day of infamy in South Africa’s history but few know of a brutal massacre when police opened fire on people at an ANC Youth League-organised event in Duncan Village in East London.

The official death toll was eight people killed by police gunfire and bayonet and two killed in retaliation, including an Irish nun and medical doctor, Sister Aidan Quinlan, who lived and worked in Duncan Village. Today it is believed that between 80 and 200 died that day, most buried quietly by their families, who feared arrest if they sought help at hospitals. In the cover-ups and long silences that followed, the real facts of this tragedy at the height of the ANC’s Defiance Campaign were almost lost to history.

Bloody Sunday follows the trail of the remarkable Sister Aidan into the heart of a missing chapter in our country’s past – and what was one of the most devastating massacres of the apartheid era.

While terrorism is hardly a new phenomenon, terrorism by the state and its opponents reached new levels in the twentieth century. Drawing together veteran experts on terrorism with authorities in Islam, media studies, American history, and social psychology, Dr. Howard presents a volume which lends fresh interpretations to such major issues as the origins, the impact, and the appropriate personal and public responses to terrorism. The volume covers a wide range of relevant topics, from an examination of insurgency, counterinsurgency, and terrorism during the struggle for Mexican independence in the early nineteenth century, to an overview of the difficulties of creating a concerted policy toward terrorism within the European Community, and the possible connections between terrorism and guerrilla warfare in the future. Particular attention has been placed on examining the role of the media and military retaliation in either exacerbating or checking the prevalence of terrorism.

As we come to recognize that the problem of terrorism can not be viewed solely through the lens of military policy, we need to rethink the concepts and assumptions of international security using the additional disciplines of cross-cultural studies, psychology, and history. This collection makes a major contribution by refocusing our thinking, toward an interdisciplinary approach and will be of value to policy makers, as well as those involved with military studies, social psychology, and international relations.

In September 2001, the world witnessed the horrific events of 9/11. A great deal has happened on the counterterrorist front in the 20 years since. While the terrorist threat has greatly diminished in Northern Ireland, the events of 9/11 and their aftermath have ushered in a new phase for the rest of the UK with some familiar, but also many novel, characteristics. This ambitious study takes stock of counterterrorism in Britain in this anniversary year. Assessing current challenges, and closely mirroring the 'four Ps' of the official CONTEST counterterrorist strategy - Protect, Prepare, Prevent, and Pursue - it seeks to summarize and grasp the essence of domestic law and policy, without being burdened by excessive technical detail. It also provides a rigorous, context-aware, illuminating, yet concise, accessible, and policy-relevant analysis of this important and controversial subject, grounded in relevant social science, policy studies, and legal scholarship. This book will be an important resource for students and scholars in law and social science, as well as human rights, terrorism, counterterrorism, security, and conflict studies.

In this impressive book, Edward S. Herman and David Peterson examine the uses and abuses of the word "genocide." They argue persuasively that the label is highly politicized and that in the United States it is used by the government, journalists, and academics to brand as evil those nations and political movements that in one way or another interfere with the imperial interests of U.S. capitalism. Thus the word "genocide" is seldom applied when the perpetrators are U.S. allies (or even the United States itself), while it is used almost indiscriminately when murders are committed or are alleged to have been committed by enemies of the United States and U.S. business interests. One set of rules applies to cases such as U.S. aggression in Vietnam, Israeli oppression of Palestinians, Indonesian slaughter of so-called communists and the people of East Timor, U.S. bombings in Serbia and Kosovo, the U.S. war of "liberation" in Iraq, and mass murders committed by U.S. allies in Rwanda and the Republic of Congo. Another set applies to cases such as Serbian aggression in Kosovo and Bosnia, killings carried out by U.S. enemies in Rwanda and Darfur, Saddam Hussein, any and all actions by Iran, and a host of others. With its careful and voluminous documentation, close reading of the U.S. media and political and scholarly writing on the subject, and clear and incisive charts, The Politics of Genocide is both a damning condemnation and stunning expose of a deeply rooted and effective system of propaganda aimed at deceiving the population while promoting the expansion of a cruel and heartless imperial system.

This study, based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered over a twelve-year period, takes its title from the two predominant styles of gang violence: "drive-bys," which have replaced "rumbles" as the primary form of gang violence; and "gang-bangs"--a generic term for other gang violence that includes assaults, knifings, and beatings.

The author attempts to understand the situations in which a young man would drive up to another human being and, without further ado, blow his head off. By examining hundreds of such situations, and employing both structural and phenomenological analysis, Sanders explores the various configurations of gang violence.

Gangbangs and Drive-bys also examines the routines of gang members and their view of life, the different styles of gangs, and changes undergone by gangs from the early 1980s to the end of the same decade. Over that period, the emphasis shifted from parties and paybacks to big money from the sale of rock cocaine, and from unstructured to organized crime. Along with that shift came an increase in the violence.

Finally, Sanders traces the beginning and evolution of a metropolitan police gang unit over the same decade in order to present an inside view of how the police attempt to deal with and understand gangs.

An Element on the role of violence in the traditional religions of the Pacific Ilands (Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia) and on violent activity in islander religious life after the opening of Oceania to the modern world. This work covers such issues as tribal warfare, sorcery and witchcraft, traditional punishment and gender imbalance. and moves on to consider reprisals against foreign intruders in the Pacific and the continuation of old types of violence in spite of massive socio-religious change.

Against Violence Against Women is a journey through time and across the globe to bring to light the roots of sanctioned violence against women. Rona M. Fields utilizes an interdisciplinary approach combining psychology, sociology, anthropology, and women's studies to examine cases and causes of gender-based atrocities in Afghanistan, Sudan, China, India, Siberia, and Europe. Fields reveals how these disparate cultures and societies have evolved formal institutions in which extremist ideologies (both left and right) politicize religion and other belief systems to rationalize irrational, oppressive behavior. Against this long history of institutionalized femicide, this volume investigates the potential of non-governmental agencies and international courts to provide a forum for the protection of human rights, and for the prevention of gender-based violence.

Aggression usually involves a sequence of behaviors, reflecting escalations and de-escalations in the form or intensity of the actions taken, which play out over time. This book provides a context in which social and biological research on the aggressive behaviors of human and non-human subjects, interacting in dyads or groups, can be compared and integrated. Implicit in this juxtaposition is the major question of whether general principles governing the dynamics of aggression within and between episodes may be discerned. Aggressive behavior is described at different levels of analysis in humans and a number of other animal species. Three basic views of aggression dynamics become apparent:
* The economic interpretation: Aggression will be escalated when it pays one of the combatants to do so or, more generally, when the potential benefits outweigh the risks. Decisions to escalate or de-escalate are part of a calculated "strategy," in one or another sense. This interpretation is formalized within game theoretic models as applied to animal conflicts and to international conflicts, within the chapters of this text.
* The psychological process interpretation: Emphasis is placed on psychological/physiological processes within the individual. The chapters stress the importance of acute emotional states of anger and aggressive arousal and argue the role of peripheral sympathetic activation, while proposing a central neural mechanism. Children escalating their tantrums, adult humans and animals of other species intensifying their interpersonal conflicts, national leaders going to a war footing all appear to suffer a narrowing of attention and progressive failure of cognitive function under the intensifying stress of conflict. Perhaps these changes in attention, sensory and cognitive functions, and risk taking reflect a "commitment to aggression" which is necessary for organisms to engage in potentially dangerous and painful encounters.
* The emergent process interpretation: Escalation emerges in a spontaneous and dynamic way as the actions of one participant elicit reactions from the other(s).

Chapter 4 of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com. This edited collection explores the agency of women who do violence and have violence done to them. Topics covered include rape, pornography, prostitution, suicide bombing and domestic violence. The volume contributes to the philosophical and theoretical debate, as well as offering practical, social and political responses to the issues examined.

"This fascinating, massive, wide-ranging collection that editors Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes have gathered together into William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion will soon be recognized as one of those rare critical books for which that egregiously overused term 'groundbreaking' is fully justified." -Larry McCaffery, from the preface of William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion The essays in this collection make a case for regarding William T. Vollmann as the most ambitious, productive, and important living author in the US. His oeuvre includes not only outstanding work in numerous literary genres, but also global reportage, ethical treatises, paintings, photographs, and many other productions. His reputation as a daring traveler and his fascination with life on the margins have earned him an extra-literary renown unequaled in our time. Perhaps most importantly, his work is exceptional in relation to the literary moment. Vollmann is a member of a group of authors who are responding to the skeptical ironies of postmodernism with a reinvigoration of fiction's affective possibilities and moral sensibilities, but he stands out even among this cohort for his prioritization of moral engagement, historical awareness, and geopolitical scope. Included in this book in addition to twelve scholarly critical essays are reflections on Vollmann by many of his peers, confidantes, and collaborators, including Jonathan Franzen, James Franco, and Michael Glawogger. With a preface by Larry McCaffery and an afterword by Michael Hemmingson, this book offers readings of most of Vollmann's works, includes the first critical engagements with several key titles, and introduces a range of voices from international Vollmann scholarship.

Each primary source in this essential collection on capital punishment features an authoritative introduction and analysis that helps provide crucial context for understanding the evolution of law and public attitudes toward the death penalty from colonial times to the present. This book showcases and explains key primary documents that reflect and have influenced the history of capital punishment in the United States. By presenting and examining a wide range of fascinating and momentous documents, including court decisions and transcripts, legislation, personal accounts and perspectives, congressional testimony, and government documents issued from all political perspectives, students will gain valuable insight into the evolution of public opinion and government policy on the death penalty in America. To better understand these documents, each primary source is prefaced with an introduction and followed by scholarly analysis. These documents and accompanying analysis complement one another, helping students gain a better and more accurate understanding of the viewpoints, convictions, and perspectives that have shaped American attitudes and practices toward capital punishment since the United States' earliest days. Provides a detailed overview of the history of—and controversies about—capital punishment in the United States Offers a unique mix of government documentation, court cases, and political/social advocacy perspectives Expert commentary supplies context for primary documents on capital punishment Readers Guide to Related Documents organizes all featured primary sources by theme for researchers

The outgrowth of a conference planned as a response to the need for researchers and clinicians to develop integrated plans for addressing the psychological trauma of children exposed to violence, this volume's goals are:
* to summarize research on the subject with particular emphasis on the Gulf War;
* to use this information to formulate an outline of what current knowledge suggests are reasonable approaches to public mental health intervention; and
* to develop an agenda for future research necessary for improving clinical efforts in varying international conflicts.
A significant collection of diverse perspectives attending to a diversity of cultural and political contexts, the contributors offer many conclusions about important dimensions for analyzing the effects of violence on children. Suggesting informed approaches to public mental health efforts which can be implemented, the work presented here directs attention to the need for interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and clinicians to better understand the effects of exposure to violence on the psychological well being of children and the optimal modes of remediation on individual, family, and community levels.

Researching violence and conflict can be challenging for a variety of reasons, including security risks to researchers and informants, restricted or lack of access to informants and field sites, and poor reliability of official data. Traditional methodological approaches may need to be adapted, and new methods may be called for. In addition, such research carries ethical challenges about representation of informants and information and possible use of the research for harmful ends. This book, drawing on research conducted throughout Africa in conflict zones and other insecure environments, considers the everyday dilemmas researchers face. It provides essential contributions to ongoing challenging debates about the use of alternative and mixed methods in social science research.

The chapters contained in this handbook address key issues concerning the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of violence in film and media. In addition to providing analyses of representations of violence, they also critically discuss the phenomenology of the spectator, images of atrocity in international cinema, affect and documentary, violent video games, digital infrastructures, cruelty in art cinema, and media and state violence, among many other relevant topics. The Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Film and Media updates existing studies dealing with media and violence while vastly expanding the scope of the field. Representations of violence in film and media are ubiquitous but remain relatively understudied. Too often they are relegated to questions of morality, taste, or aesthetics while judgments about violence can themselves be subjected to moral judgment. Some may question whether objectionable images are worthy of serious scholarly attention at all. While investigating key examples, the chapters in this handbook consider both popular and academic discourses to understand how representations of violence are interpreted and discussed. They propose new approaches and raise novel questions for how we might critically think about this urgent issue within contemporary culture.

This book is the first to consider the intersection between mafia power and deviant masonic lodges within the political sphere of the contemporary Italian state. At its core, it offers an analysis of the shifting interactions across powerful actors and the ways in which they balance reciprocal obedience, and a unique insight into the political processes where mafia actors and deviant lodges play a significant role in the allocation of resources. Mafia, Deviant Masons and Corruption draws on a wealth of literature from across criminology and political science and a range of primary data sources including judicial files indictments, arrest warrants, intercepted materials and sentences for key cases, official documentation from Parliamentary commissions and special committees of inquiry, rituals of affiliation and codes of initiation, and interviews with prosecutors, journalists and experts. In doing so it redefines how we have come to understand the relationship between mafias and power in Italy. It considers how criminal groups are defined and enriched by a relational capital in shifty environments where every actor assumes often a double nature: the mafia boss acts as an entrepreneur; the entrepreneur acts as a politician; the politician mixes with masons; a deviant mason supports mafia organisations. This book is a major contribution to the literature on mafias and organised crime across criminology, sociology and political science, and will be of great interest to students, researchers, scholars and engaged general readers.

This book provides a concise-yet-comprehensive overview of the broad-ranging topics in the field of violence and aggression. It uses a functional approach that acknowledges the evolutionary, cultural, and operant nature of violence and aggression. The book defines the nature of different forms of violence and aggression; examines epidemiology and risk factors; describes biological, cultural and individual causes; and discusses individual and societal prevention and treatment. Key areas of coverage include: Epidemiology of violence and aggression. Biological and social causes of violence and aggression. Cultural interventions, psychotherapies, and individual biological interventions. The effects of violence and aggression in special populations. Violence and Aggression: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice is a must-have resource for researchers, academics, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in forensic psychology, public health, criminology/criminal justice, developmental psychology, psychotherapy/counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.

Domestic violence against women is a problem that cries out for informed discussion and effective treatments. "Intervening With Assaulted Women" is a definitive response to those cries.
The authors of each of the chapters included in this collection were selected for their ability to address a different issue related to the abuse of women. As a result, a wide range of concerns are confronted and discussed in this book, among them, the socio-political underpinnings of violence against women, the early childhood learning of assaultive men, and the traumatic impact of abuse on women and children.
As for possible treatments, a current and uniquely comprehensive range of responses is described and evaluated, making this an excellent text for both front-line and classroom settings.

This book contains articles on the theory of conflict. Conflict appears in many forms, from a dictator terrorizing his country to organized crime demanding protection money. Among the questions addressed are the conditions which make conflict severe (for example, is class conflict worse than ethnic conflict?), whether voluntary agreements can avoid future conflict, how the outcome of one war will affect the incentives of countries to wage war in the future, how dictators hold power, and why revolutions appear. The book provides an overview of existing literature, applies the theory of conflict to new situations, and gives foundations for future work. It should interest both researchers and students studying political economy, public choice, international relations, and comparative politics.