Title: Control of violence : historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies /
Authors: Heitmeyer, Wilhelm.
Publisher: Springer,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Violence Prevention; Violence Social aspects.; Violent crimes; Violence Religious aspects; Social control.
Abstract: Modern societies are increasingly confronted with forms of violence that appear unpredictable and uncontrollable. Are the existing control regimes such as police, state surveillance institutions, and legal systems able to effectively contain phenomena such as school shootings, terrorism, or violence in fragile states, and what would help them become more effective? What is the relationship between state rule and self-control in limiting violence? Taking an historically and internationally comparative perspective, the contributors to this innovative book examine these violent phenomena as well as the preconditions and mechanisms of their control. Taking into consideration the fundamentally ambivalent character of control, they explore how institutions and strategies of control retroact on and thus re-shape societies. Moreover, they address general aspects of violence control in modern societies such as the concept of individual self-control, the impact of changing social institutions and the role of religion. The contributions to this volume explore violence on the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of social organization, creating a cohesive theoretical framework for understanding violence on each of these levels. Control of Violence in Modern Societies will be of great interest to researchers studying violence, particularly to those studying the phenomenon in a global context, be it from a criminological, a sociological or from a public health perspective. -- From the Back Cover.
Contents: Control of violence : an analytical framework / Andrea Kirschner and Stefan Malthaner -- An end to violence / Michel Wieviorka -- Cross-national homicide trends in the latter decades of the twentieth century : losses and gains in institutional control? / Steven F. Messner [and others] -- Self-control and the management of violence / Charles R. Tittle -- Self-control, conscience, and criminal violence : some preliminary considerations / Helmut Thome -- Reading religious violence in terms of theories of social action / Hans G. Kippenberg -- Religion and control of violence / Levent Tezcan -- Gun violence and control in Germany 1880-1911 : scandalizing gun violence and changing perceptions as preconditions for firearm control / Dagmar Ellerbrock -- Controlling control institutions : policing of collective protests in 1960s West Germany / Klaus Weinhauer -- School violence and its control in Germany and the United States since the 1950s / Dirk Schumann --^