Random Violence

Random Violence

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  • Author: Joel Best
  • Publisher: Univ of California Press
  • ISBN: 9780520921672
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 268

Random Violence is a deft and thought-provoking exploration of the ways we talk about—and why we worry about—new crimes and new forms of victimization. Focusing on so-called random crimes such as freeway shootings, gang violence, hate crimes, stalking, and wilding, Joel Best shows how new crime problems emerge and how some quickly fade from public attention while others spread and become enduring subjects of concern. Best's original and incisive argument illuminates the fact that while these crimes are in actuality neither new, nor epidemic, nor random, the language used to describe them nonetheless shapes both private fears and public policies. Best scrutinizes the melodramatic quality of the American public's attitudes toward crime, exposing the cultural context for the popularity of "random violence" as a catch-all phrase to describe contemporary crime, and the fallacious belief that violence is steadily rising. He points out that the age, race, and sex of homicide victims reveal that violence is highly patterned. Best also details the contemporary ideology of victimization, as well as the social arrangements that create and support a victim industry that can label large numbers of victims. He demonstrates why it has become commonplace to "declare war" on social problems, including drugs, crime, poverty, and cancer, and outlines the complementary influence of media, activists, officials, and experts in institutionalizing crime problems. Intrinsic to all these concerns is the way in which policy choices and outcomes are affected by the language used to describe social problems.


Understanding Violence

Understanding Violence

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  • Author: Elizabeth Kande L. Englander
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1351537938
  • Category : Psychology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 406

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


A Pattern of Violence

A Pattern of Violence

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  • Author: David Alan Sklansky
  • Publisher: Harvard University Press
  • ISBN: 0674259696
  • Category : Law
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 337

A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.


Norms of Violence

Norms of Violence

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  • Author: Aimée X. Delaney
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISBN: 1000357007
  • Category : Law
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 157

Norms of Violence: Violent Socialization Processes and the Spillover Effect for Youth Crime explores the degree to which violent socialization processes, both at the macro- and micro-levels, are associated with youth criminal behavior. Based on a quantitative test of an integrated theory of social control and culture of violence, the author argues that violent socialization is a process involving physical violence, exposure to violence, and pro-violent communications. All three dimensions, in combination with national level indicators of violence, contribute to a norm of violence which, at a national-level, spills over into other dimensions of society, including the family environment. This book seeks to answer if violent socialization processes truly control youth behavior. Various quantitative methods are used to demonstrate how violent socialization tends to be more prevalent in nations with indicators of violence compared to nations without such indicators. The spilling over of violence into socialization processes creates a context of violence normalized as a form of social control, which exacerbates youth criminal behavior within pro-violent nations. This book is unique in propelling a more thorough explanation of international youth crime by focusing on both victimization (violent socialization) and offending, rather than arguing solely that victimization is a correlate of youth crime. It provides a reference point for future comparative research offering theoretical explanations for youth crime across different nations and is essential reading for those engaged in youth and juvenile justice efforts and scholars interested in issues surrounding violence, youth, and justice.


Issues Around Violence in Schools

Issues Around Violence in Schools

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  • Author: Lauren W. Collins
  • Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
  • ISBN: 1837976236
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 201

Given the apparent rise in many forms of violence in schools, and the dire consequences to those impacted by violence, it is vital to better support children and youth. This volume provides an overview of key areas of promise for improved research and practice to mitigate violence and respond in positive, supportive ways.


Peace, Culture, and Violence

Peace, Culture, and Violence

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  • Author: Fuat Gursozlu
  • Publisher: BRILL
  • ISBN: 900436191X
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 294

Peace, Culture, and Violence examines deeper sources of violence by providing a critical reflection on the forms of violence that permeate everyday life and our inability to recognize these forms of violence. Exploring the elements of culture that legitimize and normalize violence, the essays collected in this volume invite us to recognize and critically approach the violent aspects of reality we live in and encourage us to envision peaceful alternatives. Including chapters written by important scholars in the fields of Peace Studies and Social and Political Philosophy, the volume represents an endeavour to seek peace in a world deeply marred by violence. Topics include: thug culture, language, hegemony, police violence, war on drugs, war, terrorism, gender, anti-Semitism, and other topics. Contributors are: Amin Asfari, Edward Demenchonok, Andrew Fiala, William Gay, Fuat Gursozlu, Joshua M. Hall , Ron Hirschbein, Todd Jones, Sanjay Lal, Alessandro Rovati, Laleye Solomon Akinyemi, David Speetzen, and Lloyd Steffen.


Leadership, Violence, and School Climate

Leadership, Violence, and School Climate

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  • Author: Kyle E. Blanchfield
  • Publisher: R&L Education
  • ISBN: 1475801726
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 182

In the book, Leadership, Violence and School Climate: Case Studies in Creating Non-Violent Schools, three important themes are emphasized namely, democratic leadership, violence and school climate. The book recognizes that safety should be the first issue of concern when addressing school violence. However, violence in schools should not be the sole concern of outside experts who advocate for lock downs, metal detectors and bullet proof glass. Through democratic school leadership violence can be reduced by those professionals actually working in schools. The book emphasizes that reduction in school violence originates from school leaders having a comprehensive understanding of the climate found in schools. Leadership, violence and school climate are connected through the use of democratic principles that address; crisis, trauma, empowerment, common ground, critical thinking, assertiveness and others. The book points out how schools can reverse their reactionary stance to violence, and become pro-active through the practice of democratic principles.


State Violence and Moral Horror

State Violence and Moral Horror

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  • Author: Jeremy Arnold
  • Publisher: State University of New York Press
  • ISBN: 1438466773
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 216

Can state violence ever be morally justified? In State Violence and Moral Horror, Jeremy Arnold critically engages a wide variety of arguments, both canonical and contemporary, arguing that there can be no justification. Drawing on the concept of singularity found in the work of French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, Arnold demonstrates that any attempt to justify state violence will itself be violent and, therefore, must fail as a justification. On the basis of this argument, the book explores the concept of "moral horror" as the experience of living amidst and acquiescing to unjustifiable state violence. The careful explanation of arguments from across the spectrum of political theory and exceptionally clear prose will enable both advanced undergraduates and more general readers interested in political thought to understand and engage the central argument. State Violence and Moral Horror is a unique contribution to the growing literature on violence and will be of interest to political theorists and philosophers in both the analytic and continental traditions, philosophers of law, international relations theorists, law and society scholars, and social scientists interested in normative aspects of state violence.


Families, Violence And Social Change

Families, Violence And Social Change

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  • Author: McKie, Linda
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
  • ISBN: 0335211585
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 194

“This comprehensive analysis on abuse committed in the home provides insights at both the micro and macro levels... The book combines legal and social science approaches in a way that makes it essential reading for anyone studying or working on violence-related issues.†Kevät Nousiainen, University of Helsinki, Johanna Niemi-Kiesiläinen, University of Umeå and Anu Pylkkänen, University of Helsinki. “This excellent book offers a timely intervention into debates about violence. Whilst most debates still focus on the spectacular rather than mundane forms of violence, Linda McKie uses a synthesis of legal, sociological and feminist research to show how current debates fail to deal with the violence that underpins our lives.†Prof Beverley Skeggs, University of London. An exciting new addition to the series, this book tackles assumptions surrounding the family as a changing institution and supposed haven from the public sphere of life. It considers families and social change in terms of concepts of power, inequality, gender, generations, sexuality and ethnicity. Some commentators suggest the family is threatened by increasing economic and social uncertainties and an enhanced focus upon the individual. This book provides a resume of these debates, as well as a critical review of the theories of family and social change: Charts social and economic changes and their impact on the family Considers the prevalence and nature of abuse within families Explores the relationship between social theory, families and changing issues in familial relationships Develops a theory of social change and families through a critical and pragmatic stance Key reading for undergraduate students of sociology reading courses such as family, gender, health, criminology and social change.


Framing Sexual and Domestic Violence through Language

Framing Sexual and Domestic Violence through Language

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  • Author: Renate Klein
  • Publisher: Springer
  • ISBN: 1137340096
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 157

With examples from throughout Europe and the United States, the contributors to this volume explore how gender violence is framed through language and what this means for research and policy. Language shapes responses to abuse and approaches to perpetrators and interfaces with national debates about gender, violence, and social change.