Where Does Violence Come From

Where does violence come from? How can people do such things? These are often the first questions that arise when we witness violence in the in the media or in real life. This book provides comprehensive answers by combining the explanatory approaches from criminology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, brain research, genetics, pedagogy, historical sciences, and justice into a big, exciting, and comprehensible picture - in an entertaining way with current, state-of-the art science(s). Multiple case studies are presented that show us the frightening diversity of human violence: acts of violence by individual perpetrators; violence between groups; riots and tumults by gangs and hooligans; violent ethnic and religious conflicts; extreme violence in the form of amok and terror; and up to armed conflicts, pogroms, and genocide. Last but not least, the knowledge gained from this book can help answer another big question: how can violence be contained or even prevented? From the contents: How and where does violence originate in our brain? Why has a tendency towards violence become established as part of our behavioural repertoire in the development of humankind? What influences on personality development can lead to violent characters? How often is violence the product of a pathological psyche? Do genes play a role? Which social constellations contribute? What are the causes of rampage and terror? What is known about the relationship between religion and violence?

Where does violence come from? How can people do such things? These are often the first questions that arise when we witness violence in the in the media or in real life. This book provides comprehensive answers by combining the explanatory approaches from criminology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, brain research, genetics, pedagogy, historical sciences, and justice into a big, exciting, and comprehensible picture - in an entertaining way with current, state-of-the art science(s). Multiple case studies are presented that show us the frightening diversity of human violence: acts of violence by individual perpetrators; violence between groups; riots and tumults by gangs and hooligans; violent ethnic and religious conflicts; extreme violence in the form of amok and terror; and up to armed conflicts, pogroms, and genocide. Last but not least, the knowledge gained from this book can help answer another big question: how can violence be contained or even prevented? From the contents: How and where does violence originate in our brain? Why has a tendency towards violence become established as part of our behavioural repertoire in the development of humankind? What influences on personality development can lead to violent characters? How often is violence the product of a pathological psyche? Do genes play a role? Which social constellations contribute? What are the causes of rampage and terror? What is known about the relationship between religion and violence? Prof. Bernhard Bogerts, MD, is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist. From 1994 to 2015, he was clinical director and full professor of psychiatry at the University of Magdeburg, Germany. Since his retirement, he has been the director of the Salus Institute in Magdeburg, whose scientific focus is research into the causes of violence. He has received several awards for his research on the brain-biological basis of mental disorders. He also became known for his work on psychological and brain pathological findings in violent offenders.

The past 25 years have seen a major paradigm shift in the field of violence prevention, from the assumption that violence is inevitable to the recognition that violence is preventable. Part of this shift has occurred in thinking about why violence occurs, and where intervention points might lie. In exploring the occurrence of violence, researchers have recognized the tendency for violent acts to cluster, to spread from place to place, and to mutate from one type to another. Furthermore, violent acts are often preceded or followed by other violent acts. In the field of public health, such a process has also been seen in the infectious disease model, in which an agent or vector initiates a specific biological pathway leading to symptoms of disease and infectivity. The agent transmits from individual to individual, and levels of the disease in the population above the baseline constitute an epidemic. Although violence does not have a readily observable biological agent as an initiator, it can follow similar epidemiological pathways. On April 30-May 1, 2012, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop to explore the contagious nature of violence. Part of the Forum's mandate is to engage in multisectoral, multidirectional dialogue that explores crosscutting, evidence-based approaches to violence prevention, and the Forum has convened four workshops to this point exploring various elements of violence prevention. The workshops are designed to examine such approaches from multiple perspectives and at multiple levels of society. In particular, the workshop on the contagion of violence focused on exploring the epidemiology of the contagion, describing possible processes and mechanisms by which violence is transmitted, examining how contextual factors mitigate or exacerbate the issue. Contagion of Violence: Workshop Summary covers the major topics that arose during the 2-day workshop. It is organized by important elements of the infectious disease model so as to present the contagion of violence in a larger context and in a more compelling and comprehensive way.

While there is a tacit appreciation that freedom from violence will lead to more prosperous relations among peoples, violence continues to be deployed for various political and social ends. Yet the problem of violence still defies neat description, subject to many competing interpretations. Histories of Violence offers an accessible yet compelling examination of the problem of violence as it appears in the corpus of canonical figures – from Hannah Arendt to Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault to Slavoj Žižek – who continue to influence and inform contemporary political, philosophical, sociological, cultural, and anthropological study. Written by a team of internationally renowned experts, this is an essential interrogation of post-war critical thought as it relates to violence.

A unique synthesis of breakthrough research, this landmark book shatters myths about the causes of aggression, maintaining that the roots of violent behavior lie in the way the brain works.

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.

Provocative and timely: a pioneering neurocriminologist introduces the latest biological research into the causes of--and potential cures for--criminal behavior. With an 8-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.

Offers an alternative picture of the causes of human violence, showing strategies for change through concerted societal action.