Violence in Society Books - Page 12

The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence

Douglas P. Fry

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this captivating book, renowned anthropologist Douglas P. Fry shows how anthropology can provide unique insights into the nature of war and the potential for peace. Challenging the traditional view that humans are by nature primarily violent and warlike, Professor Fry argues that along with the capacity for aggression humans also possess a strong ability to prevent, limit, and resolve conflicts without violence. Raising philosophy of science issues, the author shows that cultural beliefs asserting the inevitability of violence and war can bias our interpretations, affect our views of ourselves, and may even blind us to the possibility of achieving security without war. Fry draws on data from cultural anthropology, archaeology, and sociology as well as from behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology to construct a biosocial argument that challenges a host of commonly held assumptions.
The Human Potential for Peace includes ethnographic examples from around the globe, findings from Fry's research among the Zapotec of Mexico, and results of cross-cultural studies on warfare. In showing that conflict resolution exists across cultures and by documenting the existence of numerous peaceful societies, it demonstrates that dealing with conflict without violence is not merely a utopian dream.

Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution

Mark Juergensmeyer

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Gandhi's Way provides a primer of Mahatma Gandhi's principles of moral action and conflict resolution and offers a straightforward, step-by-step approach that can be used in any conflict---at home or in business; in local, national, or international arenas. This invaluable handbook, updated with a new preface and a new case study on terrorism in Northern Ireland, sets out Gandhi's basic methods and illustrates them with practical examples. Juergensmeyer shows how parties at odds can rise above a narrow view of self-interest to find resolutions that are satisfying and beneficial to all involved. He then pits Gandhi's ideas against those of other great social thinkers in a series of imaginary debates that challenge and clarify Gandhi's thinking on issues of violence, anger, and love. He also provides a Gandhian critique of Gandhi himself and offers viable solutions to some of the gaps in Gandhian theory.
Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution was previously published as Fighting with Gandhi and Fighting Fair.

Ditch That Jerk : Dealing With Men Who Control and Hurt Women

Pamela Jayne M.A.

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Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Read it before you leave, and if you already have 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

An invaluable manual for how to get out of an abusive relationship and how to break the ties afterwards. I also recommend it for women who are looking for a serious relationship and for young teens. There are definite red flags to look for BEFORE you become involved with someone.

Editorial Review:

Neither weighed down by research nor weightless with airy promises, Ditch That Jerk is a gritty, honest, and most of all experienced view of physical and emotional abusers and their effect on victims. Engagingly written, it shows women how to assess their partners and relationships for potential abuse, and for potential change - or not. Author Pamela Wiseman uses examples from counseling sessions to illustrate how the mind of an abusive man works and how to identify the patterns. She details the tricks used by such men to keep women in line and discusses warning signs, alcohol and drugs, and the excuses people use to explain abuse. Optimistic and empowering without candy-coating a difficult topic, this book gives women the tools to make clear-headed decisions about damaging relationships.

Children Who See Too Much: Lessons from the Child Witness to Violence Project

Betsy McAlister Groves

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

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In Children Who See Too Much, Betsy Groves debunks the myth that young age is a protector against the lasting effects of witnessing violence in the home. She makes the powerful case that traumatic events carried out by family members carry the most severe psychological risks for very young children and uses the newest cognitive research to explore how very young children process violence.

Groves draws upon the Child Witness to Violence Program's award-winning training programs for parents, teachers, police officers, clergy, and pediatric health care providers to lay out ways adults can understand and protect the very young children—all around us—who see too much.

"Groves provides six practical steps that will help parents create a safer world, regardless of neighborhood or race. The model presented in this book is clearly a valuable one for other communities to copy."
—Library Journal

"Betsy Groves offers rare insight for adults who seek to help children cope with trauma and violence."
—James Garbarino, Ph.D., author of Parents Under Siege

"As the events of Sept. 11 drive home, there is no way, these days, to keep images of death and destruction entirely away from the eyes (and out of the nightmares) of our children. . . . Children Who See Too Much will fill the need for a road map felt by parents overwhelmed by all the awfulness around them."
—Judith Warner, The Washington Post

Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings

Katherine S. Newman, Cybelle Fox, Wendy Roth, Jal Mehta, David Harding

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

On ballistics and sociological bruises 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

The first thing one has to do, when trying to take a serious look at the subject of school shootings, is to put things in perspective. After all, despite the shocking and graphic images seen during the media frenzies following these events, the actual statistics do not support an epidemic of violence in schools. Less than 1% of homicides and suicides among school-age children actually occur in or around school grounds. 99% of the violence that school-age children are subjected to happens outside of school grounds and outside of school hours. Kids in violent urban neighborhoods are statistically safer in the classroom during school hours than in any waking hours.

That aside, I began working my way through this book, and trying to keep a disciplined perspective on things, on February 13th, a couple weeks ago, the day before the shootings at NIU. Besides the coincidence in the timing, the NIU shooting was the first of its kind where I had to worry about people very close to me being involved. Millions of kids represented statistically mean nothing compared to a single horrific story involving the real people who populate my life. It was a tragic reminder for me that no one is immune to gut reactions.

There is no minimizing the importance of this topic, and not just because we want to avoid future tragedies, but also because the discussion sheds light on themes that affect multiple aspects of our shared culture and our collective quality of life.

The authors here take an interesting approach. The automatic responses from most people, as far as preventative approaches, would be limited access to guns and a greater focus on screening for individuals who are likely to perpetrate these horrendous crimes. But, for a myriad of reasons, not all of which are simply political, neither of these approaches end up being straightforward. I could rant on and on about gun laws, we all have strong opinions, but that would steer me too far off course.

As far as predictive strategies, focused on identifying adolescents likely to commit serious acts of mass violence, you have the same statistical problems you would have trying to screen for a very rare form of a medical illness. The more rare the event, the greater the ratio of false positives versus true positives for any measure. This is not necessarily a problem, if resources are ample, costs of screening are low, and the outcome of being falsely screened in is completely benign. But in the real world, designing an accurate screening tool that is practical and not potentially harmful is not an easy task. Believe me. There are many researchers who have dedicated their entire careers to this without producing a demonstrably valid instrument.

The authors of "Rampage" draw on their extensive fieldwork in the aftermaths of two school shootings, as well as other data in the literature, and come to the conclusion that best solutions will be found in "the insights of sociology over psychology." The authors extensively review the popular explanations that get filtered down to us: mental illness, the "he just snapped" most-proximate-cause explanations, family problems, a culture of violence, bullying, peer influences, changing communities, media violence, the copycat effect, and gun availability. Katherine Newman et al. also report insightfully on the aftermath of these tragedies in their towns. There is an important chapter, "Blame and Forgiveness," which talks about the role faith plays in the public mediation of blame and responsibility. All explanations are explored thoughtfully, nothing is dismissed, but Newman et al. effectively argue that clinging to any one of these over-simplifications may be comforting but ultimately contribute to missing the big picture.

After reviewing the details of two particular school shootings, they tell us "there is nothing spontaneous about a rampage school shooting." School shooters, and the rest of us, inhabit complex and dynamic social and institutional worlds: "There are reasons why the shooters don't go out quietly when they decide to address their social dilemmas. They arrive at these tragic solutions after a period of small trials and big errors." From their perspective, solutions lie not in preventative models as much as in risk management models: "...the best bet we have for prevention lies not in trying to identify the people whoa re going to shoot their teachers and classmates- though preventative mental health measures are good policy across the board- but rather on intercepting the flow of information when the threats fly." Solutions have to do with the organization of schools and the relationships between individuals, families, and our institutions. All of this is handled with appropriate humility. The authors never pretend they have it all figured out. They acknowledge that any intervention will meet resistance and may have unpredictable negative consequences. But they certainly do a lot to advance the discussion.

So, guess what. Zero-tolerance policies that preordain overreaction- such as expelling a student for giving a friend an aspirin, instituting punitive penalties for specific language with no regard to context, or gang-marshalling a kid to the psychiatric emergency room instead of allowing them a minute to take space and collect themselves- are counter-productive. It works against fostering a sense of belonging within the school, and it discourages the flow of important information from students to administrators or counselors. It works against a sense of sharing information in good faith.

Improving the sense of trust and connection between kids, families, schools, and communities sounds like an over-simplistic solution. But it isn't. It's as simple or complex as you want to make it, but ultimately it will prove to be a much more effective way to decrease violence than intensifying efforts to label kids as potential sociopaths.

If I had to pick a beef with the authors, I would say that it would have been nice to see more about mental health services in the schools. The authors do endorse this, but it is a brief discussion. I would have wanted it emphasized that kids with trauma histories typically present with anxiety, hypervigilance, irritability, and a tendency to misinterpret social cues. They may react to perceived bullying or intimidation from peers or staff, and the typical "show of force" response to their behaviors will typically increase oppositionality, ultimately making no one safer.

In a brief summary, I can't do justice to a topic that the authors here spend nearly 400 pages discussing. So get the book and read it. I highly recommend this book for reading that is important and serious, but also written at a very accessible level. It manages to be very compelling reading, a hard book to put down, which is quite an accomplishment for such a heavy and heartrending subject.

Editorial Review:

In the last decade, school shootings have decimated communities and terrified parents, teachers, and children in even the most "family friendly" American towns and suburbs. These tragedies appear to be the spontaneous acts of disconnected teens, but this important book argues that the roots of violence are deeply entwined in the communities themselves. Rampage challenges the "loner theory" of school violence and shows why so many adults and students miss the warning signs that could prevent it.

Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence (New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance, and Law)

Jody Miller

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Editorial Review:

Much has been written about the challenges that face urban African American young men, but less is said about the harsh realities for African American young women in disadvantaged communities. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and even gang rape are not uncommon experiences. In Getting Played, sociologist Jody Miller presents a compelling picture of this dire social problem and explores how inextricably, and tragically, linked violence is to their daily lives in poor urban neighborhoods.

Drawing from richly textured interviews with adolescent girls and boys, Miller brings a keen eye to the troubling realities of a world infused with danger and gender-based violence. These girls are isolated, ignored, and often victimized by those considered family and friends. Community institutions such as the police and schools that are meant to protect them often turn a blind eye, leaving girls to fend for themselves. Miller draws a vivid picture of the race and gender inequalities that harm these communities—and how these result in deeply and dangerously engrained beliefs about gender that teach youths to see such violence—rather than the result of broader social inequalities—as deserved due to individual girls' flawed characters, i.e., she deserved it.

Through Miller's careful analysis of these engaging, often unsettling stories, Getting Played shows us not only how these young women are victimized, but how, despite vastly inadequate social support and opportunities, they struggle to navigate this dangerous terrain.

7 años secuestrado por las FARC (Spanish Edition)

Luis Eladio Perez

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this searing account, Dario Arizmendi recounts the story of Luis Eladio Perez, a man that was held hostage by Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). His story gives testimony to a tragic period in Colombia's history, to the unimaginable reality of living in captivity for seven years. ''Luis Eladio Perez shared the terrible experiences of living in captivity -the humiliations, ill-treatment and total loss of human dignity; the continuous clashes, intolerance and differentiations made by his fellow captives; the constant hunger; the impotence of not having access to the most basic forms of medical care, for example the single daily aspirin that could ''treat'' a heart-attack or a renal crisis, not to mention having suffered three diabetic comas and two bouts of malaria. He also talked about the long and grueling forty-day walks through the heart of the jungle, his relationship with Ingrid Betancourt and with his fellow captives. He described the subhuman conditions they lived in-which he refers to as ''the purest form of barbarism''-, the structure of the camps, their diet and daily routines, the chains used to hold them, the insects, snakes and tigers, the constant fear of insanity, the uncertainty of survival, and sex life in captivity. He gave me a detailed account of the dramatic escape plan hatched with Ingrid Betancourt, which they aborted of mutual accord. The story poured in these pages is an invitation for all of us to reflect upon the turmoil Colombia has lived in for the past four decades -a turmoil with no apparent solution in the near future''. Dario Arizmendi Description in Spanish: ''Luis Eladio Perez compartio conmigo la penosa vida cotidiana en cautiverio, la perdida de la dignidad, el maltrato, las diferencias, roces e intolerancias entre los mismos companeros de cautiverio, las humillaciones a las que era sometido constantemente, sus hambrunas, el miedo a perder la vida, la impotencia de no tener ni una aspirina para ''tratar'' un infarto, ni una crisis renal y tres comas diabeticos, amen de dos malarias y dos leishmaniasis, las largas y penosas de hasta cuarenta dias por el corazon de una selva virgen y cruel, su relacion con Ingrid Betancourt y con las demas victimas. Me conto las condiciones en las que el y sus companeros de secuestro vivian, situacion que define como ''la mas pura de las barbaries''. Me conto como es la estructura de los campamentos, como son las caletas, la alimentacion, las rutinas diarias, las cadenas con las que los mantuvieron amarrados por los dias de los dias, los insectos, las culebras, los tigres, el temor constante al acecho de la locura, la incertidumbre de la supervivencia, la vida sexual. Con lacerante nostalgia y recordando siempre a sus companeros, me relato con detalles y dramatismo su periplo en el intento de fuga con Ingrid Betancourt y la decision conjunta de abortar el plan. Con razon y corazon, Luis Eladio Perez nos hace reflexionar sobre esta desgarradora realidad que ha sufrido nuestra querida Colombia desde hace mas de cuatro decadas y que continua. Y que no pareciera tener salida con luz al final del tunel, por lo menos en el corto plazo''.Dario Arizmendi. ''Vivi con Luis Eladio el descenso al infierno. Conocimos juntos las fronteras de la locura, presenciamos las honduras de la degradacion humana y descubrimos la infinita bondad de Dios. Poco podemos hacer para cambiar el mundo, salvo dar testimonio'' Ingrid Betancourt

Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence (New Directions in Critical Theory)

Adriana Cavarero

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Editorial Review:

Words like "terrorism" and "war" no longer encompass the scope of contemporary violence. With this explosive book, Adriana Cavarero, one of the world's most provocative feminist theorists and political philosophers, effectively renders such terms obsolete. She introduces a new word& mdash;"horrorism"& mdash;to capture the experience of violence.

Unlike terror, horrorism is a form of violation grounded in the offense of disfiguration and massacre. Numerous outbursts of violence fall within Cavarero's category of horrorism, especially when the phenomenology of violence is considered from the perspective of the victim rather than that of the warrior. Cavarero locates horrorism in the philosophical, political, literary, and artistic representations of defenseless and vulnerable victims. She considers both terror and horror on the battlefields of the Iliad, in the decapitation of Medusa, and in the murder of Medea's children. In the modern arena, she forges a link between horror, extermination, and massacre, especially the Nazi death camps, and revisits the work of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt's thesis on totalitarianism, and Arendt's debate with Georges Bataille on the estheticization of violence and cruelty.

In applying the horroristic paradigm to the current phenomena of suicide bombers, torturers, and hypertechnological warfare, Cavarero integrates Susan Sontag's views on photography and the eroticization of horror, as well as ideas on violence and the state advanced by Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. Through her searing analysis, Caverero proves that violence against the helpless claims a specific vocabulary, one that has been known for millennia, and not just to the Western tradition. Where common language fails to form a picture of atrocity, horrorism paints a brilliant portrait of its vivid reality.

The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future

Martha C. Nussbaum

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Martha Nussbaum reveals in this penetrating look at India today, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to its democratic traditions and secular state.

Since long before the 2002 Gujarat riots--in which nearly two thousand Muslims were killed by Hindu extremists--the power of the Hindu right has been growing, threatening India's hard-won constitutional practices of democracy, tolerance, and religious pluralism. Led politically by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu right has sought the subordination of other religious groups and has directed particular vitriol against Muslims, who are cast as devils in need of purging. The Hindu right seeks to return to a "pure" India, unsullied by alien polluters of other faiths, yet the BJP's defeat in recent elections demonstrates the power that India's pluralism continues to wield. The future, however, is far from secure, and Hindu extremism and exclusivity remain a troubling obstacle to harmony in South Asia.

Nussbaum's long-standing professional relationship with India makes her an excellent guide to its recent history. Ultimately she argues that the greatest threat comes not from a clash between civilizations, as some believe, but from a clash within each of us, as we oscillate between self-protective aggression and the ability to live in the world with others. India's story is a cautionary political tale for all democratic states striving to act responsibly in an increasingly dangerous world.

(20070628)

Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie

Clayton E. Cramer

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Revisionists' Bane, Or How The Standard Version Was Right All Along 4 out of 5 stars.
27 of 27 people found this review helpful.

Cramer writes a focused work, detailing the presence and use of firearms in the colonial, revolutionary and early Republic periods of American history. He compiles a wealth of specific examples based on primary sources like wills, newspapers, legislation, travel books, etc. He demonstrates a deep knowledge of the topic and the sources, showing the range and breadth of early American experience with firearms for use in personal defense and in a military context. Some of the material can be dry, and this book is not one for those looking for a rollicking story - it's a history, of the kind useful for professionals or amateurs with a specific, rather than a general interest in the topic. Occasionally Cramer restates the obvious - of course, given the inability of some of our countries "best" historical scholars on the Bancroft Committee to pick up on the obvious inconsistencies between Bellesiles' writing in Arming America and the original records, he should be forgiven. Armed America should be seen as a refutation of Bellesiles and his ilk - as the academic frauds that they have been demonstrated to be. After reading Armed America you will be convinced that Cramer had the right of it.

4 stars - it's a solid work, and well executed.

Editorial Review:

In this true story of our nation's love affair with firearms, Clayton E. Cramer debunks the myths and takes readers along a winding historical trail full of surprising revelations and riveting anecdotes, explaining the roots of America's gun culture.