The book engages with an urgent and disturbing question: how are ordinary people readied to willingly kill others in the name of a cause? It compares narratives of actors in domains often assumed incomparable in academic discourse: Naxalites studied within the framework of peasant rebellion, social movement or recently even terrorism, and Hindu rioters viewed mostly under the broad rubric of ethnic violence. The book draws from the author's extensive and painstaking fieldwork, first with Naxalite armed cadre across seven districts in Jharkhand and Bihar, and later with participants in the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Viewed from the standpoint of the perpetrator or foot soldier, the book bridges hitherto sacrosanct boundaries between left-extremist and communal violence, making available a whole new dimension to the study of social mobilisation, the politics of identity and, with far reaching implications, discovers deep commonalities in the life-worlds and aspirations of those motivated to kill in the name of a cause in apparently disparate contexts. The findings of this compelling analysis of human actors - ordinary people driven to extraordinary violence - will interest the informed general reader, as also those interested in sociology, politics, violence studies, ethnic movements, Naxalism, policy studies, and peace & conflict studies.

It's widely accepted that Transcendental Meditation (TM) can create peace for the individual, but can it create peace in society as a whole? And if it can, what could possibly be the mechanism? In An Antidote to Violence Barry Spivack and Patricia Saunders examine the peer-reviewed research and suggest that TM can influence the collective consciousness of a society which leads to a decrease in negative social trends, such as a decline in war fatalities, and to an increase in cooperation between nations. Weaving together psychology, sociology, philosophy, statistics, politics, physics and meditation, An Antidote to Violence provides evidence that we have the knowledge to reduce all kinds of violence in society.

Women, Violence and Social Change demonstrates how refuges and shelters stand as the core of the battered women's movement, providing a basis for pragmatic support, political action and radical renewal. From this base movements in Britain and the United States have challenged the police, courts and social services to provide greater assistance to women. The book provides important evidence on the way social movements can successfully challenge institutions of the State as well as salutatory lessons on the nature of diverted and thwarted struggle. Throughout the book the Dobashes' years of researching violence against women is illustrated in the depth of their analysis. They maintain the tradition established in their first book, Violence Against Wives, which was widely accalimed.

Sport and Violence takes a critical look at the culture of 'sports rage' and aggression in the sporting industry, covering ethical, historical and sociological causes and impacts. It examines international examples of sport violence, including: the father of a tennis competitor placing a drug in the drinks of her competitors; a player's neck broken after being attacked from behind by an opponent in an NHL game; hooliganism in international soccer and more. The book not only attempts to explain how and why such violence originates, it examines its impact on society outside sport and suggests potential remedies for the problem. This book: Examines the culture of violence that permeates and surrounds sport, including the sociological causes of that violence, and what can be done to mitigate them Features an international perspective with examples of sport violence from throughout the world Offers a historical view on the evolution of violence in sport Its up-to-date and in-depth coverage of a controversial issue makes this book a valuable asset to both sports students and professionals working in sports management.

This book illuminates the origins and development of violence as a social issue by examining a critical period in the evolution of attitudes towards violence. It explores the meaning of violence through an accessible mixture of detailed empirical research and a broad survey of cutting-edge historical theory.

The author discusses topics such as street fighting, policing, sports, community discipline and domestic violence and shows how the nineteenth century established enduring patterns in views of violence.

Violence and Crime in Nineteenth-Century England will be essential reading for advanced students and researchers of modern British history, social and cultural history and criminology.

Workplace violence has emerged as a growing concern in today's interdependent political economy, and increasing attention is being paid to the phenomenon both by business and in the academic world to identifying its causes and to devise strategies to prevent it. In this book a distinguished international team, composed of both academics and practitioners, identify and address the key issues. It reviews the earlier literature on workplace violence, identifying and assessing key trends and patterns of violence at work, and reapplying traditional theories of victimisation and approaches to prevention, security and safety. Particular attention is paid to case studies which reflect innovative practice in prevention strategies, and in assessing informal frameworks which have been developed in response to this. Overall this book provides a foundation on which to base ways of better explaining, predicting, understanding and preventing workplace violence.

This book traces international developments in the hooligan phenomenon since the Heysel tragedy of 1985. The authors make special reference to the troubled European championships in West Germany in 1988 and look critically at political responses to the problem. The authors used 'participant observation' in their research on British fans at the World Cup in Spain, and at matches in Rotterdam and Copenhagen, and capture the authentic voice of football hooliganism in their interviews. In this analysis of patterns of football violence the authors suggest some short-term proposals for restricting seriously violent and disorderly behaviour at continental matches and put forward a long-term strategy to deal with the root causes of hooligan behaviour.

This systematic historical and sociological study of the phenomenon of football hooliganism examines the history of crowd disorderliness at association football matches in Britain and assesses both popular and academic explanations of the problem. The authors' study starts in the 1880s, when professional football first emerged in its modern form, charting the pre and inter-war periods and revealing that England's World Cup triumph formed a watershed. The changing social composition of football crowds and the changing class structure of British society is discussed and the genesis of modern football hooliganism is explained by tracing it to the cultural conditions and circumstances which reproduce in young working-class males an interest in a publicly expressed aggressive masculine style.

This book examines the significance of Malcolm X as a social theorist. Though Malcolm X has been studied and written about extensively, this is the first book to offer an in-depth look at his contributions to critical social theory. Through analyzing Malcolm X's views on race, religion, academia, philosophy, and politics, Reimagining Malcolm X provides a new conceptualization of this important thinker and activist.

Gun Violence In American Society: Crime, Justice, and Public Policy provides an in-depth, multidisciplinary investigation into one of society's major social, public health and political concerns-death, injury, and destruction from the use of firearms. Contributors employ a variety of theoretical, methodological, and data analysis frameworks to address different gun violence issues. They explore how gun violence is created and perpetuated in society, as well as the various forms and social contexts in which it appears. The impacts of gun violence on different social groups, communities, and social institutions are also delineated. Moreover, possible solutions to gun violence are presented.

Humans of the advanced world are the most violent beings of all times. This violence is evident in the conditions of perpetual warfare and the accumulation of the most powerful and destructive arsenal ever known to humankind. It is also evident in the devastating impact of advanced world economy and cultural practices which have led to ecological devastation and the current era of mass species extinction. -one of only six mass extinction events in planetary history and the only one caused by the actions of a single species, humans. This violence is manifest in our interpersonal relationships, and the ways in which we organize ourselves through hierarchical systems that ensure the wealth and privilege of some, against the penury and misery of others. In this new and highly original book, Jeff Lewis argues that violence is deeply inscribed in human culture, thinking and expressive systems (media). Lewis contends that violence is not an inescapable feature of an aggressive human nature. Rather, violence is laced through our desires and dispositions to communalism and expressive interaction. From the near extinction of all Homo sapiens, around 74,000 years ago, the invention of culture and media enabled humans to imagine and articulate particular choices and pleasures. Organized intergroup violence or warfare emerged through the exercise of these choices and their expression through larger and increasingly complex human societies. This agitation of amplified desire, hierarchical social organization and mediated knowledge systems has created a cultural volition of violent complexity which continues into the present. Media, Culture and Human Violence examines the current conditions of conflict and harm as an expression of our violent complexity.

"Each chapter contains recommendations for legislators, policy makers, researchers, and families. This book should be on the desk, and minds, of legislators, attorneys, social workers and other mental health professionals who encounter and wish to ameliorate the effects of violence in the lives of their young constituents, clients, and patients." -JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES Questions relating to violence and children surround us in the media: should V-chips be placed in every television set? How can we prevent another Columbine school shooting from occurring? How should pornography on the internet be regulated? The Handbook of Children, Culture and Violence addresses these questions and more, providing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of childhood violence that considers children as both consumers and perpetrators of violence, as well as victims of it. The Handbook offers much-needed empirical evidence that will help inform debate about these important policy decisions. Moreover, it is the first single volume to consider situations when children are responsible for violence, rather than focusing exclusively on occasions when they are victimized. Providing the first comprehensive overview of current research in the field, the editors have brought together the work of a group of prominent scholars whose work is united by a common concern for the impact of violence on the lives of children. The Handbook of Children, Culture and Violence is poised to become the ultimate resource and reference work on children and violence for researchers, teachers, and students of psychology, human development and family studies, law, communications, education, sociology, and political science/ public policy. It will also appeal to policymakers, media professionals, and special interest groups concerned with reducing violence in children's lives. Law firms specializing in family law, as well as think tanks, will also be interested in the Handbook.

In 1932 Einstein asked Freud, 'Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?' Freud answered that war is inevitable because humans have an instinct to self-destroy, a death instinct which we must externalize to survive. But nearly four decades of study of aggression reveal that rather than being an inborn drive, destructiveness is generated in us by experiences of excessive psychic pain. In War is Not Inevitable: On the Psychology of War and Aggression, Henri Parens argues that the death-instinct based model of aggression can neither be proved nor disproved as Freud's answer is untestable. By contrast, the 'multi-trends theory of aggression' is provable and has greater heuristic value than does a death-instinct based model of aggression. When we look for causes for war we turn to history as well as national, ethnic, territorial, and or political issues, among many others, but we also tend to ignore the psychological factors that play a large role. Parens discusses such psychological factors that seem to lead large groups into conflict. Central among these are the psychodynamics of large-group narcissism. Interactional conditions stand out: hyper-narcissistic large-groups have, in history, caused much narcissistic injury to those they believe they are superior to. But this is commonly followed by the narcissistically injured group's experiencing high level hostile destructiveness toward their injury-perpetrator which, in time, will compel them to revenge. Among groups that have been engaged in serial conflicts, wars have followed from this psychodynamic narcissism-based cyclicity. Parens details some of the psychodynamics that led from World War I to World War II and their respective aftermath, and he addresses how major factors that gave rise to these wars must, can, and have been counteracted. In doing so, Parens considers strategies by which civilization has and is constructively preventing wars, as well as the need for further innovative efforts to achieve that end.

This textbook examines what drives Al Qaeda-inspired radicalization to violence, how to detect it, and how to confront it. The chapters discuss behaviors and ideologies that are observable and tangible in radicalized individuals or those on the path to violent radicalization. These behaviors are drawn from a variety of cases, such as planning acts of terrorism, traveling to join terrorist groups, or participating in violent jihadi conflict outside the country. The main case study is Canada, and each chapter features many examples that range from Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber") and Anders Breivik in Norway to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Damian Clairmont, a Canadian citizen who died fighting in Syria. The text begins by introducing general concepts, such as terrorism, extremism, and radicalization, before presenting contributing factors to those embracing political violence. A comprehensive list of behavioral indicators that someone is becoming a violent extremist is provided, followed by a look at what is being done to confront this threat as well as what could be done.

Just Remembering: Rhetorics of Genocide Remembrance and Sociopolitical Judgment analyzes a set of influential discourses of genocide remembrance to explain how public memory discourses inform sociopolitical judgment. Within this explanatory context, Just Remembering additionally asks how we might remember pasts marked by genocidal violence in ways that commit ourselves to a deeper understanding and more humane practice of justice. The chapters are thematically organized, focusing on specific sites of memory to highlight symbolic inducements of memorial discourses. Chapter 2 analyzes U.S. public discourse concerning an "Armenian Genocide" resolution to elucidate the role of politics in the production, dissemination, and maintenance of memory. Chapter 3 offers a historical account of the shift in public discourse concerning the capture of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, demonstrating how and with what consequences the discourses shifted from a focus on law to a focus on morality. Chapter 4 expands this work by analyzing how competing narrative accounts of historical figures and events (Eichmann and the Holocaust) influence what we remember, how we remember, and the ends to which we apply such memories. Chapter 5 analyzes the Report of the President's Commission on the Holocaust that produced the United States' official remembrance of the Holocaust. This chapter argues that the Commission Report provides an exemplary explanation for why we should remember and provokes a complex understanding of what we are to remember. Chapter 6 concludes the book by focusing on the productive capacity of the humanitarian aims of U.S. Holocaust remembrance.

This extensively researched book addresses sports fan violence sociologically, using both theoretical models and empirical data. Lewis draws from the theoretical approaches based on the collective behavior models of Neil J. Smelser and Clark McPhail in order to show how to study fan violence using the intensive case history method. This method is then applied to an in-depth analysis of the Ohio State-Michigan football celebration riot in 2002 and the Boston Red Sox celebration riot in 2004. The book concludes by proposing solutions for the prevention and control of sports fan violence.

Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America presents a nuanced and evidence-based discussion of both the acceptance and co-optation of the transitional justice framework and its potential abuses in the context of the struggle to keep the memory of the past alive and hold perpetrators accountable within Latin America and beyond. The contributors argue that "transitional justice"-understood as both a conceptual framework shaping discourses and a set of political practices-is a Janus-faced paradigm. Historically it has not always advanced but often hindered attempts to achieve historical memory and seek truth and justice. This raises the vital question: what other theoretical frameworks can best capture legacies of human rights crimes? Providing a historical view of current developments in Latin America's reckoning processes, Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America reflects on the meaning of the paradigm's reception: what are the broader political and social consequences of supporting, appropriating, or rejecting the transitional justice paradigm?

Gendered Violence, Abuse and Mental Health in Everyday Lives: Beyond Trauma offers new insights into the social dimensions of emotional distress in abuse-related mental health problems, and explores the many interconnections between gendered violence, different forms of abuse and poor mental health. Looking at how individuals can overcome the impact of abuse over the course of their lives, Moulding maps a feminist-informed recovery-oriented approaches to therapy and prevention. Drawing on sociological perspectives and a wide range of international research, as well as original qualitative data presented here for the first time, this book: -Demonstrates how gender and other social power relations play out in the specific emotional dimensions of some of the mental health problems most strongly linked to abuse, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and eating disorders; -Critiques the way that mainstream psychological theory and research pathologises the effects of abuse through various mental illness diagnoses, obscuring the nature of the individual emotional distress involved, its social context and relational nature; -Outlines a feminist-informed, recovery-oriented approach that aims to reduce violence against women and children. This innovative volume is an important contribution to the literature on the impact of violence and abuse on the lives and health of its survivors. It will be of interest to students and researchers from a range of disciplines and professions, including social work, gender studies, sociology, social policy, psychology, counselling, mental health, public health, medicine and nursing.

Told from the perspective of mothers who've lived it, Difficult focuses on mothering challenging adult children. Difficult brings to life the conflicts that arise for mothers who are confronted with the unexpected, burdensome, and even catastrophic dependencies of their adult children associated with mental illness, substance use, or chronic unemployment. Through real stories of mothers and their challenging adult children, this book offers readable, provocative, and, at times, shocking illustrations of the excruciating maternal dilemma: Which takes precedence--the needs of the mother or of the distressed adult child? Difficult addresses a family situation which too many keep secret. The book allows readers to see that they are not alone. It includes resources for getting help: finding social support, staying safe, engaging in self-care, and helping the adult child. Judith Smith speaks empathically to parents, acknowledging and illuminating the embarrassment, shame, and helplessness that women can feel when their adult children's problems puncture their own feelings of self-worth. In the absence of sufficient supports and affordable housing for persons with mental illness or substance misuse disorder, mothers feel that they have no choice - "if not me, then who?" Unpaid and unrecognized maternal caregiving work continues to limit women's quality of life, even, into their later years. Smith addresses this as a societal issue which requires structural solutions. Difficult is for parents, concerned family and friends, health and mental health professionals, and policy makers. The book provides resources for women to find social support, stay safe, and engage in self-care.

American Literature, Lynching, and the Spectator in the Crowd: Spectacular Violence examines spectatorship in American literature at the turn of the twentieth century, focusing on texts by Theodore Dreiser, Miriam Michelson, Irvin S. Cobb, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The spectator functions as a lens through which we view the relationship between violence and social change as depicted in the politically-charged crowds of fictional lynch mob scenes that expose the central tension of American democracy-the struggle for balance between the rights of the individual and the demands of the community. This has played out in American fiction through clashes between crowds and the primarily rural images that have so often been used to describe America. While this pastoral vision of America has dominated the study of American literature, this book argues for a reassessment of fiction that takes into consideration that the way the country defines itself collectively is as significant as the way its people define themselves individually. This study distinguishes itself from others by bringing together journalism, crowds, lynching, spectatorship, and literature in new and innovative ways that uncover how American literature at the turn of the twentieth century confronted and pushed beyond passive observation and static visual performances, which are traditionally associated with the terms "spectator" and "spectacle." The crowds in fictional lynch mob scenes clash with the idea of positive collective action because the crowd's vigilantism defies legitimate legal and democratic processes. Lynch mobs, in contrast to other crowds like strikes or political rallies, do not reclaim the democratic process from the control of the powerful and wealthy, but rather oppose those practices violently without regard to justice. As a figure who is simultaneously within and outside the crowd, the spectator (often in the form of a reporter character) is in a unique position to express the fractures occurring between the individual and the collective in American society. Racial conflicts are a key aspect of the crowd scenes examined. American writers contended with these issues by using the spectator to observe, question, and challenge readers to consider the impact on the structure of American society.

There are few areas of modern social science that are as fiercely debated as media psychology. Written by one of the foremost experts on the topic, this is a concise overview of what is known and not known about how individuals are affected by and interact with various forms of mass media. The book critically examines research from cognitive, social, developmental, biological, and evolutionary approaches to psychology and addresses the interplay between media consumption and viewer behavior in such realms as advertising, body image, sex, and violence. Distinguished by its examination of research from a scientifically objective position, the book offers students not only current knowledge of media psychology but also the tools to challenge commonly held assumptions from popular advocacy and ideology. This text cuts across different psychological approaches to studying how individuals are affected by mass media and includes research from criminal justice and sociology. It considers critical debates in media psychology and how debates in science themselves can be influenced by processes such as ""moral panic."" Written in a lively, accessible manner, the book draws upon engaging examples such as Photoshopped model controversies, dubious advertising practices, and attempts to blame violent crimes on media to illustrate scholarly principles. Throughout, data from research studies are related back to real-world phenomena such as violence rates, advertising dollars spent, or changes in the news media. Written for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying media psychology, the text will also be of value to professionals in psychology, sociology, and criminal justice as well as individuals involved in public policy as it relates to media effects. Key Features Offers an objective, interdisciplinary approach to understanding media and behavior Draws from cognitive, social, developmental, and biological psychology, as well as criminal justice research and sociology Challenges the conclusions drawn from research to foster critical thinking Written in a lively, accessible writing style with engaging examples

Disordered Personalities and Crime seeks to better understand how we respond to those individuals who have been labelled at various points in time as 'morally insane', 'psychopathic' or 'personality disordered'. Individuals whose behaviour is consistent with these diagnoses present challenges to both the criminal justice system and mental health systems, because the people who come to have such diagnoses seem to have a rational and realistic understanding of the world around them but they can behave in ways that suggest they have little understanding of the meaning or consequences of their actions. This book argues that an analysis of the history of these diagnoses will help to provide a better understanding of contemporary dilemmas. These are categories that have been not only shaped by the needs of criminal justice and the claims of expertise by professionals, but also the fears, anxieties and demands of the wider public. In this book, David W. Jones demonstrates us how important these diagnoses have been to the history of psychiatry in its claims for professional expertise, and also sheds light on the evolution of the insanity defence and helps explain why it remains a problematic and controversial issue even today. This book will be key reading for students, researchers and academics who are interested in crime and its relationship to mental disorder and also for those interested in psychiatry and abnormal psychology.

Over the last few decades, television programs have attempted to depict some of the more troubling elements of society with a more conscientious approach. Issues that networks were once reluctant to broadcast-such as sexual abuse, sexual assault, and rape-have become frequent plot points for many popular shows. Narratives that portray important social issues could potentially affect the ways individual viewers understand such incidents in the real world, so it is important to pay close and critical attention to the stories about rape that are broadcast to mass audiences. In Assault on the Small Screen: Representations of Sexual Violence on Prime Time Television Dramas, Molly Ann Magestro examines the ways in which police and legal dramas on network and cable channels portray rape narratives. In this discussion, the author focuses on eight successful shows-NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, Dexter, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and The Good Wife. Each chapter offers a close reading and analysis of how one or more of the shows represent rape narratives and rape victims in ways that more or less address feminist understandings of rape and rape culture. The arguments in each chapter explore the specific narrative content of individual series rather than a single critical approach. Each of the eight shows considered within the book is the focus of its own argument, as the representations of rape narratives on television are as complex as issues surrounding rape can be in the real world. In a time when rape narratives are frequently making headlines, taking the time to examine and understand the messages broadcast by a medium as ubiquitous as television serves an important role in developing an understanding of rape culture. A significant step toward this understanding, Assault on the Small Screen will be of interest to scholars of film and television, media studies, gender studies, criminology, and sociology.

This book argues that homophobia plays a fundamental role in disputes for hegemony between antagonists during political transitions. Examining countries not often connected in the same research-Colombia and South Africa-the book asserts that homophobia, as a form of gender and sexual violence, contributes to the transformation of gender and sexual orders required by warfare and deployed by armed groups. Anti-homosexual violence also reinforces the creation of consensus around these projects of change. The book considers the perspective of individuals and their organizations, for whom such hatreds are part of the embodied experience of violence caused by protracted conflicts and social inequalities. Resistance to that violence are reason to mobilize and become political actors. This book contributes to the increasing interest in South-South comparative analyses and the need of theory building based on case-study analyses, offering systematic research useful for grass root organizations, practitioners, and policy makers.

The threat of violence concerns most people most profoundly. It has long been a topic of intensive academic, practical and political debate. In recent years the workplace has emerged as a recognized site of violence, threat and menace and this book will make a significant contribution to the growing literature on workplace violence. Using innovative research methods, this book uniquely examines four of the most violence-prone occupations: the police; Accident and Emergency staff; social workers; mental health professionals. The Violent Workplace identifies similarities and differences between these occupations that are far from intuitive. It examines the diversity of experiences that shelter under the concept of 'violence and threats'; promotes the importance of the 'moral dimension' in experiences of violence; analyzes the impact of appearance and reputation in creating fear; discusses the importance of context in creating a sense of menace; and concludes by considering the practical implications of this research for handling violence and managing those who have suffered it.