In the heart of a village untouched by the world’s chaos, five-year-old Popina took solace in the simple joys of childhood – climbing mango trees, chasing baby baboons, and exploring the fields. But her innocence was shattered in an instant when a group of strangers invaded the village, bringing with them a terror that a young girl could never have imagined.
 
The Smallest Ones  is a harrowing and powerful account of survival and resilience in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s. Popina, her family and friends were captured by rebel soldiers and were subjected to torture and rape. After several years of captivity, Popina and her older sister managed to escape, and began an epic journey all the way to South Africa. But even there, their nightmare was not over.
 
Written with raw emotion and unflinching honesty,  The Smallest Ones  takes readers on a journey through the darkest corners of human experience, yet it is also a testament to the enduring power of hope and the will to survive. This is not just a story of tragedy, but a poignant exploration of the human spirit’s capacity to endure and overcome.
 
After eventually finding refuge in a children’s home in Despatch in the Eastern Cape, Popina started building the life she dreamt of as a child. Having had no schooling, she now found herself in a classroom and held a pen for the first time. And so began her journey to education and freedom.

Many people now see religious violence as one of the defining characteristics of the modern world. Instructors are often asked about it in their courses that deal with religion. Classroom discussion of violence committed in the name of religion can either open the door to a more subtle appreciation of complex and divisive social realities or allow students to display the kind of ignorance, prejudice, and recalcitrance that can derail critical analysis. The etiology of religious violence requires the kind of careful distinctions that instructors must work hard to communicate even in the best of classroom circumstances. Teaching Religion and Violence is designed to help instructors to equip students to think critically about religious violence, particularly in the multicultural classroom. The book is organized into two sections. The first, "Traditions," addresses topics and methods appropriate for teaching violence in particular religious traditions. Each essay provides a solid starting point for the instructor developing a new course on violence in one tradition. The overarching aims of the second section, "Approaches," are to suggest alternative rubrics for initiating or furthering discussion of religion and violence and to aid instructors in demonstrating the wide applicability of the questions and concepts developed here. The volume as a whole and each of the essays is firmly grounded in the theoretical literature on religion and violence, in the theory of pedagogy, and in the collective experience of its authors.

Anthropologists have expressed wariness about the concept of evil even in discussions of morality and ethics, in part because the concept carries its own cultural baggage and theological implications in Euro-American societies. Addressing the problem of evil as a distinctly human phenomenon and a category of ethnographic analysis, this volume shows the usefulness of engaging evil as a descriptor of empirical reality where concepts such as violence, criminality, and hatred fall short of capturing the darkest side of human existence.

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

"This book takes a first step toward globalizing the history of lynching. Covering fourteen countries and five continents, it demonstrates that lynching has neither been a uniquely American phenomenon, nor did it exclusively target racial and ethnic minorities. But what appears to be common to vigilantism and extralegal punishment around the globe is the ideology of popular justice, the idea that lynching represents a form of communal self-defense against crimes that are unchecked by the state. The multidisciplinary and multiregional approach of this volume will lay the groundwork for a more thorough understanding of mob violence and extralegal punishment in the United States and the world"--

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of sexual homicide. It includes a thorough survey of offender classifications, and analyses current theoretical explanations and understandings of sexual homicide from a criminological perspective. It proposes an important new integrated theoretical understanding of sexual homicide offenders.

This international study of children's experiences of organized persecution, explores the Holocaust and its aftermath as prototypical social trauma. Traumatized persons' feelings of shame and guilt as well as a sense of being different may prevail, and they may attribute great power to others, seek safety in isolation, or search for a rescuer. Nevertheless, as a group, the child survivors of the Holocaust have achieved remarkable success as adults. Drawing on the wealth of personal and interview information, the contributors create a synthesis of personal history and psychological analysis. Adult memories of traumatic childhood experiences are accompanied by discussions of their effects and by analysis of the various coping mechanisms used to establish a viable post-war existence. These accounts are distinguished by the fact that they are by and about individuals who grew up in undistinguished Christian and Jewish families; not those of prominent figures or resistance fighters or rescuers. All experienced unrest and many suffered trauma during the Nazi regime, as a result of the war, and during the post-war turbulence. An important collection for students and scholars of the Holocaust and for those professionals in a position to help surviving victims of other organized persecution, civil violence, strife, and abuse.

From Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of I Choose Elena, comes an immersive polyphonic memoir exploring the intricacies of abuse, trauma, and shame. Through the voices of women, trans and non-binary people around the world and her own deeply moving testimony, Lucia speaks of vulnerability and acceptance, and the reclaiming of ourselves in a world that repeatedly asks us to carry the weight of the shame of the atrocities committed against us. Widely researched and boldly argued, My Body Keeps Your Secrets reveals the secrets a body keeps - the trauma that can rewrite our biology, our relationship with sex, and how we connect with others, establishing Lucia's credentials as a key intersectional feminist thinker of a new generation.

Based on original research with self-identified paedophiles in the community, this book challenges assumptions and destroys the sacred cows of both radical and conservative thinking on paedophilia and sexuality. Offering a humane and inspiring vision, the book goes beyond previous thinking to develop an inclusive new approach.

This book focuses upon the breaking of rules and taboos involved in 'doing crime', including violent crime as represented in fictive texts and ethnographic research. It includes chapters on topics of urgent contemporary interest such as asylum seekers, sex work, serial killers, school shooters, crimes of poverty and understandings of 'madness'.

How does ideology in some states radicalise to such an extent as to become genocidal? Can the causes of radicalisation be seen as internal or external? Examining the ideological evolution in the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and during the break up of Yugoslavia, Elisabeth Hope Murray seeks to answer these questions in this comparative work.

This reference offers the nuanced understanding and practical guidance needed to address domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in diverse religious communities. Introductory chapters sort through the complexities, from abusers' distorting of sacred texts to justifying their actions to survivors' conflicting feelings toward their faith. The core of the book surveys findings on gender violence across Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Eastern, and Indigenous traditions--both attitudes that promote abuse and spiritual resources that can be used to promote healing. Best practices are included for appropriate treatment of survivors, their children, and abusers; and for partnering with communities and clergy toward stemming violence against women. Among the topics featured: Ecclesiastical policies vs. lived social relationships: gender parity, attitudes, and ethics. Women's spiritual struggles and resources to cope with intimate partner aggression. Christian stereotypes and violence against North America's native women. Addressing intimate partner violence in rural church communities. Collaboration between community service agencies and faith-based institutions. Providing hope in faith communities: creating a domestic violence policy for families. Religion and Men's Violence against Women will gain a wide audience among psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals who treat religious clients or specialize in treating survivors and perpetrators of domestic and intimate partner violence, stalking, sexual assault, rape, or human trafficking.

"Flirting with Danger is well worth the read and is likely to stimulate lively discussion in the classroom. Phillips has a good ear for narrative and a keen sense of the uncertainties and competing forces that shape heterosexual relationships for contemporary young women."
--"Psychology of Women Quarterly"

"Based on in-depth individual and collective interviews with a racialy and culturally diverse sampe of college-aged women, Flirting with Danger sheds light on the cultural lenses through which young women interpret their sexual encounters and their experiences of male aggression in heterosexual relationships."
--"Adolescence"

In Flirting with Danger, Lynn M. Phillips explores how young women make sense of, resist, and negotiate conflicting cultural messages about sexual agency, responsibility, aggression, and desire. How do women develop their ideas about sex, love, and domination? Why do they express feminist views condemning male violence in the abstract, but often adamantly refuse to name their own violent and exploitive encounters as abuse, rape, or victimization?

Based on in-depth individual and collective interviews with a racially and culturally diverse sample of college-aged women, Flirting with Danger sheds valuable light on the cultural lenses through which young women interpret their sexual encounters and their experiences of male aggression in heterosexual relationships.

Phillips makes an important contribution to the fields of female and adolescent sexuality, feminist theory, and feminist method. The volume will also be of particular use to advocates seeking to design prevention and intervention programs which speak to the complex needs of womengrappling with questions of sexuality and violence.

The hangman's knot is a simple thing to tie, just a rope carefully coiled around itself up to thirteen times. But in those thirteen turns lie a powerful symbol, one of the most powerful in history, and particularly in America, whose relationship to the noose is all too deep and complicated.
Our history with hangings is shockingly recent. The last man to be hanged in the United States was Billy Bailey, who was executed in Delaware in 1996 for committing a double murder. Hanging has since been disallowed in that state, but it is still legal, in certain situations, in New Hampshire and Washington. An incident in Jena, Louisiana, in 2006, in which nooses were used to symbolically menace black students, is a fresh reminder of just how potent this emblem of racism and savage violence still is.
All that meaning, and all that history, is a lot to see in a coiled rope. But the fact is, that meaning is felt by all of us. And Jack Shuler, a professor of American literature and black studies, is the right man to explore it: from Judas Iscariot, perhaps the most infamous hanged man, to the killing of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the murderers at the heart of Capote's "In Cold Blood," and beyond. Shuler goes era by era, tracing the evolution of this dark practice in episodes, and revealing the ways each one impacted the society around it. As he investigates the death of John Brown and the 1930 lynching that inspired the song "Strange Fruit," his travels take him across America--and not just the South--uncovering our deep secrets and searching for meaning.
Shuler's account is a kind of shadow history of America: for all the celebrated strides we've made towards integration and harmony, those victories are hollow without an appreciation for what they vanquished. "The Thirteenth Turn" is a courageous and searching book that reminds us where we come from, and what is lost if we forget.

This book offers a timely and detailed exploration and analysis of key contemporary issues and challenges in child sexual abuse, which holds great relevance for scholarly, legal, policy, professional and clinical audiences worldwide. The book draws together the best current evidence about the nature, aetiology, contexts, and sequelae of child sexual abuse. It explores the optimal definition of child sexual abuse, considers sexual abuse in history, and explores new theoretical understandings of children's rights and other key theories including public health and the Capabilities Approach, and their relevance to child sexual abuse prevention and responses. It examines a selection of the most pressing legal, theoretical, policy and practical challenges in child sexual abuse in the modern world, in developed and developing economies, including institutional child sexual abuse, female genital cutting, child marriage, the use of technology for sexual abuse, and the ethical responsibility and legal liability of major state and religious organisations, and individuals. It examines recent landmark legal and policy developments in all of these areas, drawing in particular on extensive developments from Australia in the wake of its Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It also considers the best evidence about promising strategies and future promising directions in enhancing effective prevention, intervention and responses to child sexual abuse.

During the past decade, we have witnessed a dramatic transformation in the nature and uses of terrorism. In the 70s, it was often repeated that terrorists "want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead"; today, it is more accurate to say that terrorists want a lot of people dead, and even more people crippled by fear and grief. A major strategic intent of modern terrorists is to use larger scale physical attacks to cause stress in the general population. These changes in terrorist strategy have made it clear that we need better psychological and social responses to terrorism and man-made disasters. The psychological science needed to provide proper and effective treatment for victims of horrendous events, such as September 11th, and future potential terrorist acts, simply does not exist, so military, medical, and psychological experts must work together to improve their understanding of mass casualty terrorism.
In Psychology of Terrorism leading national and international experts present the first results of this effort, including the newest findings on treatment of and clinical responses to terrorism along with their respective underlying theories. They address the history of terrorism; types and effects of weapons of mass destruction or disruption; the role of the military, government agencies, and volunteer groups in responding to terrorist threats; psychological consequences of terrorism; and treatment of special populations such as children and older adults.
This volume will be an ideal text for both academic and professional courses as well as a comprehensive resource for mental health clinicians and researchers, medical care providers, educators, public healthspecialists, government employees, police and fire departments, and non-profit agencies that provide services and craft policy.

In virtually all societies, crime is an ever-present problem. Although families are often envisioned as a 'safe haven,' criminologists and family researchers have found the familial context to be at the core of many forms of crime and violence. Family members often find themselves as victims of crime and violence, often perpetrated by yet another family member. The unique nature of family relationships, such as those between children and parents, sometimes lead to intergenerational patterns of violence within families. Understandably, societies often struggle to address crime and violence within families; as such behaviors are often unreported and even concealed. Even beyond the family, crime and criminal behavior can often directly impact familial relationships, such as with the incarceration of a spouse or parent. This multidisciplinary volume of CPFR will address topics such as: child abuse and neglect, spousal violence, incarceration and parenting, community crime and family well-being, family life and delinquency, intrafamily violence, and policy-related issues pertaining to family violence.

Addresses the many forms of global violence against women and shows how the psychology of individuals, institutions, and societies perpetuate the oppression of women. In this eye-opening study, the author asserts that institutionalized definitions of masculinity and femininity, along with the social and economic inequality among the sexes, help perpetuate the daily and deadly violence against women all across the world. This second edition of a classic work examines the latest discussions on gender relations, including the current debate over whether prostitution and pornography should be deemed inherently violent and the role of western countries in the global response to violence against women. Contains the most recent research on trafficking, mail order brides, and comfort women Explains the roles of power, inequality, and gender hierarchy in violence against women Examines the belief system behind institutionalized violence, including such acts as honor crimes and dowry deaths Links current forms of violence with relics of the past-foot binding, comfort women, and charity girls

This book describes the concept of child victimization in all its facets. Millions of young people throughout the world face violence, sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and exploitation on a daily basis. The worldwide victimization of young people can be prevented, or, at least, its incidence can be greatly reduced, if purposeful action is taken to do so. This volume researches and documents some of the ways in which young people throughout the world are victimized, and suggests strategies for preventing various forms of child vistimization. Eight distinct forms of victimization are identified and analyzed in detail. Included are discussions on child prostitution and pornography, economic exploitation through child labor and trafficking, physical and other abuse inflicted on young people in schools and other institutions, the use of children as armed combatants, and the denial of the basic needs and rights of children to such things as home and to education. In each chapter the authors discuss the nature of the victimization, its global dimensions and prevalence, and the measures governments and/or others are taking, or failing to take, to combat the harm based on the concept that youth victimization is a form of government crime.

A glad heart lights up the face, but by mental anguish the spirit is broken." Proverbs 15:13 (NAB) Out of the Darkness tells the intimate details of one woman's struggle through a 21 year verbally and emotionally abusive relationship. "Just because someone seems to have the perfect marriage or life, doesn't always mean that's what their life really is like. Sometimes, those are the people who are hurting the most. Just as you don't know what goes on behind closed doors in their life, they don't know what's going on in yours." Insight is offered on how and when she realized it was time to get out of the relationship and what it took to walk out of the darkness; to overcome and move on to a new and amazing life.

Accounts of the relationships between states and terrorist organizations in the Cold War era have long been shaped by speculation, a lack of primary sources and even conspiracy theories. In the last few years, however, things have evolved rapidly. Using a wide range of case studies including the KGB's Abduction Program, Polish Military Intelligence and North Korea's 'Terrorism and Counterterrorism', this book sheds new light on the relations between state and terrorist actors, allowing for a fresh and much more insightful assessment of the contacts, dealings, agreements and collusion with terrorist organizations undertaken by state actors on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This book presents the current state of research and provides an assessment of the nature, motives, effects, and major historical shifts of the relations between individual states and terrorist organizations. The articles collected demonstrate that these state-terrorism relationships were not only much more ambiguous than much of the older literature had suggested but are, in fact, crucial for the understanding of global political history in the Cold War era.

Through unprecedented access to over 100 court files and sentences, and interviews with police and security personnel in both origin and destination countries, this book provides the most comprehensive exploration to date of human trafficking and migrant smuggling in Eastern Europe and Russia.

This book engages with debates on ethnic minority and Muslim young people showing, beyond apathy and violent political extremism, the diverse forms of political engagement in which young people engage. It situates its analysis of ethnic minority young people's politics in relation to four areas of social and political change: changing patterns of citizens' democratic participation manifested in a shift towards more informal and everyday activism; the emergence of more decentred and participatory forms of governance that have pluralized the sites of political participation; shifting conceptions of identities and ethnicity and their implications for identity politics; and the significance of different scales of activism enabled by new information communication technologies. In so doing, the book identifies 'new grammars of action' among ethnic minority young people that help to explain their disaffection with mainstream politics and through which they creatively politically participate to make a difference.