Understanding Violence: Classic Reprint Edition

✍ Scribed by Graeme Newman

• Publisher: Harrow and Heston Publishers
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 455
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This vintage text on Understanding Violence, first published in 1978, on the causes, consequences and distribution of violence is as relevant today as it was over 4 decades ago.. Though limited to research of the 1970s, the explanations, exposition and reviews of data and theories of violence are staggeringly similar to the research of the 21st century. The organization of the material is unequaled, and will help any student of violence, or anyone who seeks answers and understanding, with its well organized exposition and clear, down-to-earth style. The new preface by the author of this classic reprint identifies what he would add if he were doing a new edition, and why in the end he chose not to write one. The book contains 4 parts, beginning at the macro level, and ending at the "micro" or psychological level.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface to the
Classic Reprint Edition
Preface
Introduction
Definitions of Violence
Distorted Definitions
Organization of the Book
Part One
The Violent Scene
1
Political Violence Revolution and Repression
Violence to Enforce Authority
Violence to Challenge Authority
Violence to Acquire Power: Terrorism and Revolution
Violence in the Exercise of Power
The Psychology of Political Violence The Manichaean World
The Search for Identity
The Feuding Model
The History Game
Why Not Nonviolence?
The Pathology of Terror-From-Below
The Pathology Of Terror-From-Above
Summary and Conclusions
2
Historical Violence: Continuities and Discontinuities
America's Violent Image: History Distorted
Revolutionary Violence
Violence and the evil War: The Honor of the South
Violence and the Civil War: Protest North and South
Vigilante Violence
Protest, Reform Movements, and Violence
Agrarian Protest
Labor Protest
Urban Riots
Criminal Violence and the Frontier Tradition
Discontinuity in Criminal Violence
Conclusions and Summary
3
Criminal Violence: Patterns and Trends
Defining Criminal Violence
FBI Definitions of Crimes of Violence
The Seriousness of Violent Crimes
Measuring the Extent of Criminal Violence
Trends in Violent Crime
Violence and Age Patterns
Sex and Violence
Violence and Race
Regional Violence
Urbanization and Violence
Violence and Age Structure
Suicide, Manslaughter, and Auto Fatalities
The Weapons of Violence
Summary and Conclusions
Part Two
Violence and Culture
4
Cultures and Subcultures of Violence
Violence and Apple Pie: American or Southern?
Violence and City Life
Ethnic Subcultures
Ethnic Subcultures as Feuding Subcultures
Relationships Between the Subculture and the Dominant Culture
Social Class and Violence
Opportunity Theory
Yes and No
Class Theory, Age and Sex
Summary
5
Violence and the Roots of Culture: Age and Sex
Age and Violence
Culturally Specific Factors and Age
Sex Differences and Violence Transcultural Factors
Physiology of Sex Differences and Aggression
Genetics and Sex Differences in Aggression
Ritual Male Aggression
Culture and Sex Differences
Conclusions and Summary
6
Recycling Violence: The Family
Sex and Aggression: An Unhappy Marriage
The Social Life of Intimates
The Violence of Relatives
Battered Children
Violent Children in the Home
Summary
Part Three
Violence in Context
7
Violence: An Occupational Hazzard
Cops and Criminals
Criminal Violence as a "Profession"
The Keepers and the Caught
Explanations of Inmate Violence
Criminal Behavior
Inmate Suicides
Crowding
Teachers and Pupils
Violence-Prone School Children
Sports
Professional Boxing
Violent Team Sports
Team Games and Spectator Violence
Summary
8
Mobs Riots and Gangs
Mobs and Riots
How Do Riots Begin?
Friends and Enemies: Violent Gangs
Patterning of Gang Violence
Summary
9
The Violence of Strangers: Rape and Robbery
Rape: That Special Non-Relationship
Robbery
Summary
Part Four
Violence from Within
10
Born to Kill?
The Instinct of Aggression
Aggressive Instinct and Survival
Survival of the Fittest
Can We Observe an Aggressive Instinct?
Aggression and the Brain
The Chemical Basis of Aggression
Summary
11
The Dynamics of Violence
The Mind and Early Experience
Aggression and Emotion
Frustration and Aggression
Instrumental Aggression
Aggression and Rationality
Does Aggression Make Us Feel Good?
Aggression and Personality
Violence and Madness
The Repeated Violent Offender
Violence in the Extreme
The Psychopathic Killer
Paranoid Schizophrenia
Depression
Sexual Sadists
Panic
Summary
Conclusions
Violence as a Cultural Force
Violence as a Creative Force
Violence as a Destructive Force
Violence as a Moral Force
Violence as a Rational Instrument
Violence as a Learned Response
The Diversity of Violence
Can There Be Peace?