In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers--not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists--violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. Randall Collins challenges this view in Violence, arguing that violent confrontation goes against human physiological hardwiring. It is the exception, not the rule--regardless of the underlying conditions or motivations. Collins gives a comprehensive explanation of violence and its dynamics, drawing upon video footage, cutting-edge forensics, and ethnography to examine violent situations up close as they actually happen--and his conclusions will surprise you. Violence comes neither easily nor automatically. Antagonists are by nature tense and fearful, and their confrontational anxieties put up a powerful emotional barrier against violence. Collins guides readers into the very real and disturbing worlds of human discord--from domestic abuse and schoolyard bullying to muggings, violent sports, and armed conflicts. He reveals how the fog of war pervades all violent encounters, limiting people mostly to bluster and bluff, and making violence, when it does occur, largely incompetent, often injuring someone other than its intended target. Collins shows how violence can be triggered only when pathways around this emotional barrier are presented. He explains why violence typically comes in the form of atrocities against the weak, ritualized exhibitions before audiences, or clandestine acts of terrorism and murder--and why a small number of individuals are competent at violence. Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future.

Where does violence come from? How can people do such things? These are often the first questions that arise when we witness violence in the in the media or in real life. This book provides comprehensive answers by combining the explanatory approaches from criminology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, brain research, genetics, pedagogy, historical sciences, and justice into a big, exciting, and comprehensible picture - in an entertaining way with current, state-of-the art science(s). Multiple case studies are presented that show us the frightening diversity of human violence: acts of violence by individual perpetrators; violence between groups; riots and tumults by gangs and hooligans; violent ethnic and religious conflicts; extreme violence in the form of amok and terror; and up to armed conflicts, pogroms, and genocide. Last but not least, the knowledge gained from this book can help answer another big question: how can violence be contained or even prevented? From the contents: How and where does violence originate in our brain? Why has a tendency towards violence become established as part of our behavioural repertoire in the development of humankind? What influences on personality development can lead to violent characters? How often is violence the product of a pathological psyche? Do genes play a role? Which social constellations contribute? What are the causes of rampage and terror? What is known about the relationship between religion and violence?

A comprehensive overview of the integrative study of violence Violence continues to be one of the most urgent global public health problems that contemporary society faces. Suicides and homicides are increasing at an alarming rate, particularly in younger age groups and lower-income countries. Historically, the study of violence has been fragmented across disparate fields of study with little cross-disciplinary collaboration, thus creating a roadblock to decoding the underlying processes that give rise to violence and hindering efforts in research and prevention. Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures assembles and organizes current information into one comprehensive volume, introducing students to the multiple sectors, disciplines, and practices that collectively comprise the study of violence. This innovative textbook presents a unified perspective that integrates the sociological, biological, politico-economic, structural, and environmental underpinnings of violence. Each chapter examines a distinct point of learning, beginning with an overview of the content and concluding with discussion questions and an analytical summary. The chapters focus on key domains of research encouraging interdisciplinary investigation and helping students to develop critical analytical skills and form their own conclusions. Fills a significant gap in the field by providing a coherent text that consolidates information on the multiple aspects of violence Examines current legal, medical, public health, and policy approaches to violence prevention and their application within a global context Illustrates how similar causes of violence may have dissimilar manifestations Presents a multidisciplinary examination of the symptoms and underlying processes of violence Offers a thorough yet accessible learning framework to undergraduate and graduate students without prior knowledge of the study of violence More than just an accumulation of facts and data, this essential text offers a broad introduction to a thinking process that can produce rigorous scholarship across disciplines and lead to a deeper understanding of violence in its many forms.

Violence against women is one factor in the growing wave of alarm about violence in American society. High-profile cases such as the O.J. Simpson trial call attention to the thousands of lesser-known but no less tragic situations in which women's lives are shattered by beatings or sexual assault. The search for solutions has highlighted not only what we know about violence against women but also what we do not know. How can we achieve the best understanding of this problem and its complex ramifications? What research efforts will yield the greatest benefit? What are the questions that must be answered? Understanding Violence Against Women presents a comprehensive overview of current knowledge and identifies four areas with the greatest potential return from a research investment by increasing the understanding of and responding to domestic violence and rape: What interventions are designed to do, whom they are reaching, and how to reach the many victims who do not seek help. Factors that put people at risk of violence and that precipitate violence, including characteristics of offenders. The scope of domestic violence and sexual assault in America and its conequences to individuals, families, and society, including costs. How to structure the study of violence against women to yield more useful knowledge. Despite the news coverage and talk shows, the real fundamental nature of violence against women remains unexplored and often misunderstood. Understanding Violence Against Women provides direction for increasing knowledge that can help ameliorate this national problem.

What impels human beings to harm others -- family members or strangers? And how can these impulses and actions be prevented or controlled? Heightened public awareness of, and concern about, what is widely perceived as a recent explosion of violence -- on a spectrum from domestic abuse to street crime -- has motivated behavioral and social scientists to cast new light on old questions. Many hypotheses have been offered. This volume sorts, structures, and evaluates them.The author draws on contemporary research and theory in varied fields--sociology, clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, neuropsychology, behavioral genetics, child development, and education--to present a uniquely balanced, integrated, and readable summary of what we currently know about the causes and effects of violence. Throughout, she emphasizes the necessity of distinguishing among different types of violent behavior and of realizing that nature and nurture interact in human development. Controversial issues such as physical punishment and violent television programming receive special attention making this volume an important resource for all those concerned with violent offenders and their victims -- and for their students and trainees.In this third edition of Understanding Violence, author Elizabeth Kandel Englander draws on contemporary research and theory in varied fields to present a uniquely balanced, integrated, and readable summary of what we currently know about the causes and effects of violence, particularly its effect on children. The goal of this textbook is to give a critical review of the most relevant and important areas of research on street and family violence, examining why it is that people become violent. Between 1994 and 2004 the United States benefited from a dramatic decline in rates of violent crime. However, as the economy has weakened in recent years and tougher times have returned, the crime rate has shown signs of a modest

This book brings together scholarship on three different forms of state violence, examining each for what it can tell us about the conditions under which states use violence and the significance of violence to our understanding of states. This book calls into question the legitimacy of state uses of violence and mounts a sustained effort at interpretation, sense making, and critique. It suggests that condemning the state's decisions to use lethal force is not a simple matter of abolishing the death penalty or – to take another exemplary example of the killing state – demanding that the state engage only in just (publicly declared and justified) wars, pointing out that even such overt instances of lethal force are more elusive as targets of critique than one might think. Indeed, altering such decisions may do little to change the essential relationship of the state to violence.