Control of Violence: Historical and International Perspectives on Violence in Modern Societies

Description

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. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Control of Violence—An Analytical Framework....Pages 3-44 Front Matter....Pages 45-45 An End to Violence....Pages 47-63 Cross-National Homicide Trends in the Latter Decades of the Twentieth Century: Losses and Gains in Institutional Control?....Pages 65-89 Self-Control and the Management of Violence....Pages 91-119 Self-Control, Conscience, and Criminal Violence: Some Preliminary Considerations....Pages 121-144 Reading Religious Violence in Terms of Theories of Social Action....Pages 145-163 Religion and Control of Violence....Pages 165-183 Gun Violence and Control in Germany 1880–1911: Scandalizing Gun Violence and Changing Perceptions as Preconditions for Firearm Control....Pages 185-212 Controlling Control Institutions: Policing of Collective Protests in 1960s West Germany....Pages 213-229 Front Matter....Pages 231-231 School Violence and Its Control in Germany and the United States Since the 1950s....Pages 233-259 School Shooting: A Double Loss of Control....Pages 261-294 Explaining and Preventing School Shootings: Chances and Difficulties of Control....Pages 295-314 Masculinity, School Shooters, and the Control of Violence....Pages 315-344 Media and Control of Violence: Communication in School Shootings....Pages 345-361 Front Matter....Pages 363-363 Terrorism as Performance: The Assassinations of Walther Rathenau and Hanns-Martin Schleyer....Pages 365-394 Party Politics, National Security, and Émigré Political Violence in Australia, 1949–1973....Pages 395-414 Control of Terror—Terror of Control....Pages 415-430 Terrorism: Conditions and Limits of Control....Pages 431-444 Fighting for the Community of Believers: Dynamics of Control in the Relationship Between Militant Islamist Movements and their Constituencies....Pages 445-465 Baseless Jihad....Pages 467-484 Front Matter....Pages 485-485 Ethnic Riots in Situations of Loss of Control: Revolution, Civil War, and Regime Change as Opportunity Structures for Anti-Jewish Violence in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe....Pages 487-516 Control and Chaos: Paramilitary Violence and the Dissolution of the Habsburg Empire....Pages 517-533 Failed States in Theoretical, Historical, and Policy Perspectives....Pages 535-561 Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline? Violence Control in “Fragile” States: A Study of Vigilantism in Nigeria....Pages 563-591 Back Matter....Pages 593-622