International Handbook of Violence Research

An international manual is like a world cruise: a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All the more reason to consider carefully whether it is necessary. This can hardly be the case if previous research in the selected field has already been the subject of an earlier review-or even several competing surveys. On the other hand, more thorough study is necessary if the intensity and scope of research are increasing without comprehensive assessments. That was the situation in Western societies when work began on this project in the summer of 1998. It was then, too, that the challenges emerged: any manual, espe cially an international one, is a very special type of text, which is anything but routine. It calls for a special effort: the "state of the art" has to be documented for selected subject areas, and its presentation made as compelling as possible. The editors were delighted, therefore, by the cooperation and commitment shown by the eighty-one contributors from ten countries who were recruited to write on the sixty-two different topics, by the con structive way in which any requests for changes were dealt with, and by the patient re sponse to our many queries. This volume is the result of a long process. It began with the first drafts outlining the structure of the work, which were submitted to various distinguished colleagues. Friedheim Neidhardt of Berlin, Gertrud Nunner-Winkler of Munich, and Roland Eckert of Trier, to name only a few, supplied valuable comments at this stage.  

List of contents

1. Violence: The Difficulties of a Systematic International Review.- 2. The Concept of Violence.- 3. The Long-Term Development of Violence: Empirical Findings and Theoretical Approaches to Interpretation.- 1.1.1 Poverty and Violence.- 1.1.2 Ethnic Segregation and Violence.- 1.1.3 A Comparative Examination of Gender Perspectives on Violence.- 1.2.1 Violence and the Rise of the State.- 1.2.2 Holocaust.- 1.2.3 Violence within the Military.- 1.2.4 Violence in Prisons/Torture.- 1.2.5 Violence and the Police.- 2.1 Ethnopolitical Conflict and Separatist Violence.- 2.2 Ethnic Violence.- 2.3 The Socio-Anthropological Interpretation of Violence.- 2.4 Civil Wars.- 2.5 Terrorism.- 2.6 Violence from Religious Groups.- 2.7 Vigilantism.- 2.8 Pogroms.- 2.9 Violence and New Social Movements.- 2.10 Violence and the New Left.- 2.11 Right-Wing Extremist Violence.- 2.12 Large-Scale Violence as Contentious Politics.- 3.1.1 The Social Psychology of Aggression and Violence.- 3.1.2 Emotions and Aggressiveness.- 3.1.3 Learning of Aggression in the Home and the Peer Group.- 3.1.4 Violence and the Media.- 3.1.5 Patterns and Explanations of Direct Physical and Indirect Nonphysical Aggression in Childhood.- 3.2.1 Evolutionary Psychology of Lethal Interpersonal Violence.- 3.2.2 The Nature-Nurture Problem in Violence.- 3.3.1 Sociological Approaches to Individual Violence and Their Empirical Evaluation.- 3.3.2 Youth Violence and Guns.- 3.3.3 Organized Crime and Violence.- 3.3.4 Understanding Cross-National Variation in Criminal Violence.- 4.1 Violence against Children.- 4.2 Violence in Intimate Relationships.- 4.3 Suicide.- 4.4 Violence against the Socially Expendable.- 4.5 Violence against Ethnic and Religious Minorities.- 4.6 Hate Crimes Directed at Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Victims.- 4.7 Trauma and Violence in Children and Adolescents: A Developmental Perspective.- 5.1.1 Violence in the Family.- 5.1.2 Violence in School.- 5.1.3 Work-Related Violence.- 5.1.4 Violence and Sport.- 5.2.1 Violence on the Roads.- 5.2.2 Juvenile and Urban Violence.- 6.1.1 Political Cultural Studies and Violence.- 6.1.2 The Role of Elites in Legitimizing Violence.- 6.1.3 Violence in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy.- 6.1.4 Sacrifice and Holy War: A Study of Religion and Violence.- 6.1.5 Violence and the Glorification of Violence in the Literature of the Twentieth Century.- 6.2.1 The State Monopoly of Force.- 6.2.2 The Monopoly of Legitimate Violence and Criminal Policy.- 6.2.3 Freedom to Demonstrate and the Use of Force: Criminal Law as a Threat to Basic Political Rights.- 6.2.4 The Right to Resist.- 6.2.5 Individual Violence Justification Strategies.- 7.1 Fear of Violent Crime.- 7.2 Public Opinion and Violence.- 7.3 Groups, Gangs and Violence.- 7.4 Escalation and De-Escalation of Social Conflicts: The Road to Violence.- 1. Potentials and Limits of Qualitative Methods for Research on Violence.- 2. Strategies and Problems in Quantitative Research on Aggression and Violence.- IV. SubjectIndex.- V. Name Index.- VI. The Authors.

About the author

Dr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer ist Professor an der Universität Bielefeld und Leiter des Instituts für interdisziplinäre Konflikt- und Gewaltforschung.

Summary

An international manual is like a world cruise: a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All the more reason to consider carefully whether it is necessary. This can hardly be the case if previous research in the selected field has already been the subject of an earlier review-or even several competing surveys. On the other hand, more thorough study is necessary if the intensity and scope of research are increasing without comprehensive assessments. That was the situation in Western societies when work began on this project in the summer of 1998. It was then, too, that the challenges emerged: any manual, espe­ cially an international one, is a very special type of text, which is anything but routine. It calls for a special effort: the "state of the art" has to be documented for selected subject areas, and its presentation made as compelling as possible. The editors were delighted, therefore, by the cooperation and commitment shown by the eighty-one contributors from ten countries who were recruited to write on the sixty-two different topics, by the con­ structive way in which any requests for changes were dealt with, and by the patient re­ sponse to our many queries. This volume is the result of a long process. It began with the first drafts outlining the structure of the work, which were submitted to various distinguished colleagues. Friedheim Neidhardt of Berlin, Gertrud Nunner-Winkler of Munich, and Roland Eckert of Trier, to name only a few, supplied valuable comments at this stage.  

Additional text

From the reviews:

"In this unparalleled effort to survey comprehensively all areas of violence research, the editors bring together 63 articles by 80 authors. Topics covered run the gamut--war, the Holocaust, ethnic strife, domestic violence, violence against children, urban crime, aggressive driving, sports hooliganism….Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and higher.
(P. R. Sullivan, Choice, September 2004)

Report

From the reviews:
"In this unparalleled effort to survey comprehensively all areas of violence research, the editors bring together 63 articles by 80 authors. Topics covered run the gamut--war, the Holocaust, ethnic strife, domestic violence, violence against children, urban crime, aggressive driving, sports hooliganism....Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and higher.
(P. R. Sullivan, Choice, September 2004)

Product details

• Authors: J. (Northwestern University) Hagan, John Hagan, W. (University of Bielefeld) Heitmeyer, Wilhel Heitmeyer, Wilhelm Heitmeyer
• Assisted by: J. Hagan (Editor), W. Heitmeyer (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2005
• EAN: 9781402039805
• ISBN: 978-1-4020-3980-5
• No. of pages: 1287
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 77 mm x 234 mm
• Illustrations: XXIV, 1287 p.
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; B, Sociology, Society & social sciences, Criminology, biotechnology, Social Sciences, Social Sciences, general, Sociology, general, Crime & criminology, Criminology and Criminal Justice, general