Conflict and trauma remain among the most prevalent themes in film and literature. Comics has never avoided such narratives, and comics artists are writing them in ways that are both different from and complementary to literature and film. Harriet E. H. Earle brings together two distinct areas of research-trauma studies and comics studies-to provide a new interpretation of a long-standing theme. Focusing on representations of conflict in American comics after the Vietnam War, Earle claims that the comics form is uniquely able to show traumatic experience by representing events as viscerally as possible. Using texts from across the form and placing mainstream superhero comics alongside alternative and art comics, Earle suggests that comics are the ideal artistic representation of trauma. Because comics bridge the gap between the visual and the written, they represent such complicated narratives as loss and trauma in unique ways, particularly through the manipulation of time and experience. Comics can fold time and confront traumatic events, be they personal or shared, through a myriad of both literary and visual devices. As a result, comics can represent trauma in ways that are unavailable to other narrative and artistic forms. With themes such as dreams and mourning, Earle concentrates on trauma in American comics after the Vietnam War. Examples include Alissa Torres's American Widow, Doug Murray's The 'Nam, and Art Spiegelman's much-lauded Maus. These works pair with ideas from a wide range of thinkers, including Sigmund Freud, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Fredric Jameson, as well as contemporary trauma theory and clinical psychology. Through these examples and others, Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War proves that comics open up new avenues to explore personal and public trauma in extraordinary, necessary ways.

The twentieth century witnessed genocides, ethnic cleansing, forced population expulsions, shifting borders, and other disruptions on an unprecedented scale. This book examines the work of memory and the ethics of healing in post authoritarian societies that have experienced state-perpetrated violence. Focusing on global memorialization practices and local specificities, the contributors explore trans-generational encounters, performances, rituals, and diverse forms of remembrance and reconciliation in the aftermath of violent historical events: WWII, the Holocaust and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Stalinism in post-Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe, collaboration in Vichy France, the Civil War in Spain, and apartheid in South Africa.

This volume brings together leading sociologists and anthropologists to break new ground in the study of cultural violence. First sketched in Raphael Lemkin's seminal writings on genocide, and later systematically defined by peace studies scholar Johan Galtung, the concept of cultural violence seeks to explain why and how language, symbols, rituals, practices, and objects are so frequently in the crosshairs of socio-political change. Recent conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, along with renewed public interest in the repertoire of violence applied to the control and erasure of indigenous populations, highlights the gaps in our understanding of why cultural violence occurs, what it consists of, and how it relates to other forms of collective violence.

Using in-depth field research and analysis of case studies, Mafia Violence: Political, Symbolic, and Economic Forms of Violence in Camorra Clans focuses attention on the phenomenon of violence performed by Italian organised crime groups, devoting specific attention to the Camorra, which has been responsible since the mid-1980s for almost half of all mafia homicides documented in Italy. The Camorra has acquired increased visibility at an international level due to its intense use of violence and high level of dangerousness, but until now, the study of the different forms of violence implemented by mafias has not received systematic attention at the scientific level. Hence, this book fills this gap by providing a both theoretical and empirical contribution toward the analysis of one of the most unknown - although highly visible and dangerous - dimension of mafias' action. This collection of work by distinguished scholars provides a unique overview of the multifaceted characteristics of violence currently performed by mafia groups in Italy by focusing on specific actors - i.e., Camorra clans - but also other traditional mafia organisations such as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta; specific contexts - i.e., different territories and different markets, both legal and illegal; and specific practices and performances. Part I takes a diachronic and comparative perspective to provide an overview of mafias' violence during the past 30 years, focusing on the three most prominent criminal organisations active in Italy: Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and 'Ndrangheta. Based on the outcomes of a major project carried out by a research group at the University of Naples Federico II from 2015 to 2017, Part II looks at the use of violence by Camorra clans, incorporating information from case studies, judicial files, law enforcement investigations, wiretappings, interviews with privileged observers, firsthand empirical data, and historical documents and social sciences literature. Using a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from criminology, sociology, history, anthropology, economics, political science, and geography, this book is essential reading for international researchers and practitioners interested in piecing together the full picture of modern organised crime.

"This was several times with that damn cribbage board. I hate cribbage boards to this very day. They never beat us on the arms or legs or stuff, it was always on the bottom of the feet, I couldn't figure it out." Brian L., Huronia Regional Centre Survivor Over the past two decades, the public has borne witness to ongoing revelations of shocking, intense, and even sadistic forms of violence in spaces meant to provide care. This has been particularly true in institutions designed to care for people with disabilities. In this work, the authors not only describe institutional violence, but work to make sense of how and why institutional violence within care settings is both so pervasive and so profound. Drawing on a wide range of primary data, including oral histories of institutional survivors and staff, ethnographic observation, legal proceedings and archival data, this book asks: What does institutional violence look like in practice and how might it be usefully categorized? How have extreme forms violence and neglect come to be the cultural norm across institutions? What organizational strategies in institutions foster the abdication of personal morality and therefore violence? How is institutional care the crucial "first step" in creating a culture that accepts violence as the norm? This highly interdisciplinary work develops scholarly analysis of the history and importance of institutional violence and, as such, is of particular interest to scholars whose work engages with issues of disability, health care law and policy, violence, incarceration, organizational behaviour, and critical theory.

Sexual violence against men is an under-theorised and under-noticed topic, though it is becoming increasingly apparent that this form of violence is widespread. Yet despite emerging evidence documenting its incidence, especially in conflict and post-conflict zones, efforts to understand its causes and develop strategies to reduce it are hampered by a dearth of theoretical engagement. One of the reasons that might explain its empirical invisibility and theoretical vacuity is its complicated relationship with sexual violence against women. The latter is evident empirically, theoretically, and politically, but the relationship between these violences conjures a range of complex and controversial questions about the ways they might be different, and why and how these differences matter. It is the case that sexual violence (when noticed at all) has historically been understood to happen largely, if not only, to women, allegedly because of their gender and their ensuing place in gender orders. This begs important questions regarding the impact of increasing knowledge about sexual violence against men, including the impact on resources, on understandings about, and experiences of masculinity, and whether the idea and practice of gender hierarchy is outdated. This book engages this diverse set of questions and offers fresh analysis on the incidences of sexual violence against men using both new and existing data. Additionally, the authors pay close attention to some of the controversial debates in the context of sexual violence against men, revisiting and asking new questions about the vexed issue of masculinities and related theories of gender hierarchy. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sex, gender, masculinities, corporeality, violence, and global politics, as well as to practitioners and activists.

The first of its kind, The Handbook of Collective Violence covers a range of contexts in which collective violence occurs, bringing together international perspectives from psychology, criminology and sociology into one complete volume. There have been significant advances made in the last 25 years regarding how collective violence is conceptualised and understood, with a move away from focusing on solely individual forms of violence toward examining and understanding violence that can occur within groups. This handbook presents some of the most interesting topics within the area of collective violence, drawing upon international expertise and including some of the most well-known academics and practitioners of our generation. Structured into four parts: understanding war; terrorism; public order and organized violent crime; and gang and multiple offender groups, this volume provides academics and practitioners with an up-to-date resource that covers core areas of interest and application. Accessibly written, it is ideal for both academics and policymakers alike, capturing developments in the field and offering a deep theoretical insight to enhance our understanding of how such collective violence evolves, alongside practical suggestions for management, prevention and intervention.

This book frames several historical incidents of violent movement-countermovement conflicts within the concept of 'cumulative extremism'- the mutually reinforcing dynamic of radicalisation that can develop between two or more antagonistic groups. Drawing on several in-depth case studies, including the contests between British fascist and anti-fascist groups in the interwar period and from 1967 to 1979 and 1980 to 2000; the Troubles in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to mid-1970s; and Islamist extremists and the far-right counter-jihad movement in Britain since 2009, this book presents the first in-depth academic analysis of the concept of 'cumulative extremism' and constructs a theoretical framework through which to assess its development. This is a groundbreaking volume which will be of particular relevance to scholars with an interest in the extreme right, social movements, political violence and criminology. It will also be of interest to policy makers and to practitioners dealing with extremism and radicalisation, including youth workers, prevent coordinators, community support officers and police officers.

You are alone and finishing up some shopping at the local mall when you hear a young woman scream for help. You notice that she's surrounded by several men. Your mind begins the justification process: she is just playing; someone else will come to her aid. As you hesitate, the young woman is dragged into a van and they disappear. Already late for a meeting, as you power walk toward your office you see a young boy crying and being dragged to a car. Your mind begins the justification process: the child is just being petulant; if it is really an issue, others will jump in to help the child. You hesitate and the boy is forced into the car, and they disappear. You just arrive home from work exhausted and ready for supper. You see your elderly next-door neighbor, who lives alone, being verbally belittled by a worker he hired to do some type of chore. Your mind begins the justification process: it's a dispute between them; I don't know my neighbor well enough to intervene. In each of these cases, would you be surprised to learn that the young woman was abducted and murdered, the young boy is still missing, and the elderly neighbor was just scammed of a significant portion of his life savings? Most of us think we are not capable of rendering aid. If we do, we reason, we could be hurt, sued, or embarrassed because we misinterpreted the situation. Guardians of Necessity recognizes the right of all humans to defend themselves and others against an attack. This right is in reality an obligation that carries an awesome responsibility. Within these pages the reader is taken through the history of this right, the legal and political climate surrounding this right, and the importance of preparing to exercise this ultimate right.

Venezuela 2012: The President's illness casts a shadow over the lives of his citizens - he divides opinion, but life without him is almost unimaginable. Miguel Sanabria is a retired oncologist, ambivalent towards the President but caught between a virulently anti-Chavez wife and a equally vehement pro-Chavez brother. He is asked by his nephew to hide a mobile phone carrying secret footage that could shed new light on the President's condition. His neighbour Fredy has found a fresh angle for a new book about Chavez, but to take advantage he must agree to a "green-card" marriage and leave his girlfriend and their son for two months, even as their landlady plots to repossess their home. In another apartment live nine-year-old Maria and her neurotic, near-agoraphobic mother. Taken out of school to be educated at home, Maria turns to internet chat rooms for company, while her mother's fears about the city's endemic violence are proved tragically prescient. The fates and fortunes of these neighbours will prove inextricably entwined as the hour of the President's death draws ever closer. REVIEWS FOR THE SICKNESS "A great book" Michael Morpurgo "Powerful themes and powerful writing" Susan Hill Translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey

This ethnographic research investigates how adolescents use writing. Deborah M. Alvarez uncovers the hidden abuses and violence that adolescents bore with each school day. In two different research sites, the author follows adolescents through their academic and personal lives to discover how they use writing only to uncover the impact the public and private violence had upon their ability to learn. The author details the writing classroom practices; assignments; and how adolescents adapt, reconstruct and appropriate the lessons of the classroom for their purpose and needs. For the adolescents in the book, writing was a way to address the stresses that plagued the adolescents each day, especially when they had no other way to communicate or tell about their lived experiences. Alvarez outlines an alternative Expressivist plan for teaching writing to adolescents. This writing program builds upon the evidence from the case studies, brain theory and research on traumatic stresses to offer teachers and thereby their students a more effective way to teach writing with greater impact for those who need it most.

Cadre deployment means that the ANC and the state are inextricably intertwined. In KwaZulu-Natal, which has long been the powder keg of South Africa, it’s a monster that means people of competing patronage networks are killing each other for a place at the trough –  for jobs and tenders –  and the taxi industry provides the hitmen, guns and the transport.

Travel with journalist Greg Ardé across KwaZulu-Natal into the dark heart of South Africa and the ANC’s ‘culture of blood’.  

Ida B. Wells exposes a series of racially-motivated acts that disproportionately affect African Americans and is overwhelmingly ignored by a majority white criminal justice system. It's crucial documentation of a brutal practice that tormented a community. In the late nineteenth century, Ida B. Wells was a thriving journalist and civil rights activist. She used her writing and skills as an investigative reporter to reveal the horrifying reality that many African Americans experienced. The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, is an explosive report on how mob violence and white supremacy had become the de facto law of the land. It created a culture of cruelty and anti-blackness that promoted public attacks, including lynchings. Ida B. Wells' work helped to initiate conversations about racism, policy and policing. Shortly after the release of The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, the first anti-lynching bill was introduced into Congress. Wells' efforts were critical for African Americans seeking justice in a historically racist system. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States is both modern and readable.

It's not just the bully in the schoolyard that we should be worried about. The one-on-one bullying that dominates the national conversation, this timely book suggests, is actually part of a larger problem- a natural outcome of the bullying nature of our national institutions. And as long as the United States embraces militarism and aggressive capitalism, systemic bullying and all its impacts-at home and abroad-will persist as a major crisis. Bullying looks very similar on the personal and institutional levels: it involves an imbalance of power and behavior that consistently undermines its victim, securing compliance and submission and reinforcing the bully's sense of superiority and legitimacy. The similarity, this book tells us, is not a coincidence. Authors Charles Derber and Yale Magrass argue that individual bullying is an outgrowth-and a necessary function-of a larger social phenomenon.Bullying is seen here as a structural problem arising from systems organized around steep power hierarchies-from the halls of the Pentagon, Congress, and corporate offices to classrooms and playing fields and the environment. Dominant people and institutions need to create a culture in which violence and aggression are seen asnatural and just: one where individuals compete over who will be bully or victim, and each is seen as deserving their fatewithin this hierarchy. The larger the inequalities of power in society, or among nations, or even across species, the morelikely it is that both institutional and personal bullying will become commonplace. The authors see the life-long psychologicalscars interpersonal bullying can bring, but believe it is almost impossible to reduce such bullying without first challenging theinstitutions that breed and encourage it. In the United States a system of intertwined corporations, governments, and military institutions carries out "systemic bullying" to create profits and sustain its own power. While acknowledging the diversity and savagery of many other bully nations, the authors contend that America, as the most powerful nation in the world-and one that aggressively promotes its system as a model-merits special attention. It is only by recognizing the bullying built into this model that we can address the real problem, and in this, Bully Nation makes a hopeful beginning.

Capital punishment, serial killings, war, terrorism, abortion, honour killings, euthanasia, suicide bombings, war, and genocide: all involve the taking of life. Put most simply, all involve killing other people. However, cultural context heavily influences heavily how people perceive these acts, and most people reading this paragraph will likely disagree on the extent to which these "count" as killing. For such an evolved species, humans can be violent far beyond the point of humanity. Why We Kill examines this violence in its many forms, exploring how culture plays a role in people's understanding and definition of violent action. From the first chapter, which examines "conventional" homicide, to the final chapter's bone-chilling account of the Rwandan genocide, this fascinating book makes compelling reading.

Suicide attacks have become the defining act of political violence of our age. From New York City to Baghdad, from Sri Lanka to Israel, few can doubt that they are a terrifying feature of an increasing number of violent conflicts. Since 1981, around 30 organizations throughout the world - some of them secular and others affiliated to radical Islam - have carried out more than 600 suicide missions. Although a tiny fraction of the overall number of guerrilla and terrorist attacks occurring in the same period, the results have proved significantly more lethal. This book is the first to shed real light on these extraordinary acts, and provide answers to the questions we all ask. Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and unbridled, irrational radicals or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause? For nearly three years, this team of internationally distinguished scholars has pursued an unprejudiced inquiry, investigating organizers and perpetrators alike of this extraordinary phenomenon. Close comparisons between a whole range of cases raise challenging further questions: if suicide missions are so effective, why are they not more common? If killing is what matters, why not stick to 'ordinary' violent means? Or, if dying is what matters, why kill in the process? Making Sense of Suicide Missions contains a wealth of original information and innovative analysis which further our understanding of this chilling feature of the contemporary world in radically new and unexpected ways.

A collection of case studies of terrorist rehabilitation programmes from around the world, this book examines the wide-ranging methodologies of terrorist deradicalisation initiatives adopted by different countries globally. It contextualises these programmes as they were initiated and explains the factors that led to their relative success, failure or continuity. The different typology of rehabilitation modes acts as a guide to establishing a framework and a starting point for any deradicalisation and rehabilitation programme. These case studies demonstrate practical examples of how the theories can be applied to achieve real results. This book is an indispensable resource for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in the field of Terrorist Deradicalisation and Rehabilitation.

This book probes the complex interweaving, across time and cultures, of violence and non-violence from the perspective of the present. One of the first of its kind, it offers a comprehensive examination of the interpenetration of violence and non-violence as much in human nature as in human institutions with reference to different continents, cultures and religions over centuries. It points to the present paradox that even as violence of unprecedented lethality threatens the very survival of humankind, non-violence increasingly appears as an unlikely feasible alternative. The essays presented here cover a wide cultural-temporal spectrum - from Vedic sacrifice, early Jewish-Christian polemics, the Crusades, and medieval Japan to contemporary times. They explore aspects of the violence-non-violence dialectic in a coherent frame of analysis across themes such as war, jihad, death, salvation, religious and philosophical traditions including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, mysticism, monism, and Neoplatonism, texts such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Quran, as well as issues faced by Dalits and ethical imperatives for clinical trials, among others. Offering thematic width and analytical depth to the treatment of the subject, the contributors bring their disciplinary expertise and cultural insights, ranging from the historical to sociological, theological, philosophical and metaphysical, as well as their sensitive erudition to deepening an understanding of a grave issue. The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of history, peace and conflict studies, political science, political thought and cultural studies, as well as those working on issues of violence and non-violence.

Drawing primarily upon oral history interviews, this study presents a woman-centred history of the Indonesian occupation. It reveals the pervasiveness of violence as well as its gendered and gendering dynamics within the social and cultural everyday of life in occupied East Timor. The violence experienced by East Timorese women ranged from torture, rape, and interrogation, to various forms of surveillance and social control, and the structural imposition of particular feminine ideals upon their lives and bodies. Through women, East Timorese familial culture was also targeted via programmes to develop and modernise the territory by transforming the feminine and the domestic sphere. Women experienced the occupation differently to men, not just because they were vulnerable to sexual violence, but also because they endured proxy violence as the militarys means of targeting male relatives and the resistance at large. In Womens Words tells a story of survival and perseverance by highlighting the strength, initiative, and negotiating skills of East Timorese women. Many women lived in circumstances of constant negotiation and attempts to maintain order and normality, as well as to provide for themselves and their families, in a society where everyday life was characterised by violence and uncertainty. This study demonstrates the capacity of people to survive, to endure, and to resist, even amid the most difficult of circumstances. It provides insights into the social and cultural elements of territorial control, as well as the locally-grounded strategies that are often used for negotiating and resisting an occupying power.

"Citizenship and Political Violence in Peru" recounts the hidden history of how local processes of citizen formation in an Andean town were persistently overruled from the nineteenth century on, thereby perpetuating antagonism toward the Peruvian state and political centralism. The analysis points to the importance of two long-term processes. One reflected the memory of earlier municipal citizenship and the possibilities of political change; the other stemmed from the outlawing of political opposition which pushed radical dissent underground and into extremism, creating the conditions for the political violence in the 1980s. The book builds on the detailed study of a unique municipal archive in Tarma and ethnographic research from both before and after the violence.

The divisive and malleable nature of history is at its most palpable in situations of intractable conflict between nations or peoples. In these circumstances, how each party interprets or appropriates historical accounts informs their understanding of the roots of the conflict as well as how they relate to and interact with their adversaries. This book aims to advance our understanding of the significance of history in informing the relationship between parties involved in intractable conflicts through the concept of thick recognition and by exploring its relevance specifically in relation to Israel. It suggests that the recognition of crucial identity elements, such as widely shared understandings of history, might increase the potential for relationship transformation in intractable conflicts. More widely, the book discusses how the Israeli debates over New History can be understood as related to processes of conflict transformation as well as seeking answers to what can be seen as facilitating and inhibiting circumstances for the introduction of new understandings of history in the debates on Israeli New History.

Human remains and identification presents a pioneering investigation into the practices and methodologies used in the search for and exhumation of dead bodies resulting from mass violence. Previously absent from forensic debate, social scientists and historians here confront historical and contemporary exhumations with the application of social context to create an innovative and interdisciplinary dialogue, enlightening the political, social and legal aspects of mass crime and its aftermaths. Through a ground-breaking selection of international case studies, Human remains and identification argues that the emergence of new technologies to facilitate the identification of dead bodies has led to a "forensic turn", normalising exhumations as a method of dealing with human remains en masse. However, are these exhumations always made for legitimate reasons? Multidisciplinary in scope, this book will appeal to readers interested in understanding this crucial phase of mass violence's aftermath, including researchers in history, anthropology, sociology, forensic science, law, politics and modern warfare. The research program leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n Degrees 283-617. -- .

Interpersonal Violence Against Children and Youth uses empirical research to provide an overview of the risk factors, different types of violence against children and youth, their victimizations (online and offline), as well as prevention practices and strategies. Pulling together researchers, practitioners, and educators from around the world, this book addresses the various practices and efforts different countries use to protect children and prevent interpersonal violence. These forms of violence include parental or caregiver initiated, actions of peers, intimate partner-related, or that among strangers and are not limited to maltreatment, bullying, emotional strife, sexual assault, or homicidal violence. This book would be of interest to those studying criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social work, law, forensic pathology and others.

From early modernity to today, society has encountered various forms of interpersonal violence. Through exploration of particular areas within Europe and Russia to Africa, America and Asia, this collection presents both differences and connections among various forms of interpersonal violence in different times, places, institutional orders and relationships. Interpersonal Violence introduces research results from studies in various disciplines, such as history, sociology, social policy social work, cultural studies, and gender studies. In focusing on the diverse and often ignored social locations and cultural backgrounds of interpersonal violence, the book demonstrates 1) how the specificity of temporality and spatiality affect the manifestation of violence, 2) how the dynamics of intersectional and institutional differences are located in social space and time, and 3) how the different forms of violence in different times are affectively, conceptually and discursively connected. With its comprehensive and integrative approach, this book is a key tool book for understanding the phenomenon and cultural conceptions of interpersonal violence. It would be most suitable for upper level undergraduates, graduates doctoral students interested in social sciences, history, criminology, psychology, cultural studies, education, gender studies and public health.

This book represents a truly innovative and empowering approach to social problems. Instead of focusing solely on a seemingly tireless list of major problems, Sara Towe Horsfall considers how select key issues can be solved and pays particular attention to the advocate groups already on the front lines. Horsfall first provides a r