Violence (ebook)

Argumento de Violence (ebook)

In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers--not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists--violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. Randall Collins challenges this view in Violence, arguing that violent confrontation goes against human physiological hardwiring. It is the exception, not the rule--regardless of the underlying conditions or motivations.

Collins gives a comprehensive explanation of violence and its dynamics, drawing upon video footage, cutting-edge forensics, and ethnography to examine violent situations up close as they actually happen--and his conclusions will surprise you. Violence comes neither easily nor automatically. Antagonists are by nature tense and fearful, and their confrontational anxieties put up a powerful emotional barrier against violence. Collins guides readers into the very real and disturbing worlds of human discord--from domestic abuse and schoolyard bullying to muggings, violent sports, and armed conflicts. He reveals how the fog of war pervades all violent encounters, limiting people mostly to bluster and bluff, and making violence, when it does occur, largely incompetent, often injuring someone other than its intended target. Collins shows how violence can be triggered only when pathways around this emotional barrier are presented. He explains why violence typically comes in the form of atrocities against the weak, ritualized exhibitions before audiences, or clandestine acts of terrorism and murder--and why a small number of individuals are competent at violence.

Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future.

"[A] deeply learned, thoughtful, and erudite book. . . . [T]he complexity of thought and the clarity of exposition of this first volume leave the reader both fulfilled and eager. Like the greatest of classical sociological thinkers, Collins is both pointillist and abstract expressionist, synthesizing micro and macro, and always asserting the power of the social."--Michael Kimmel, American Journal of Sociology

"The book is a superb commentary on how the emotional energy created by the situation of forward panic produces violence. . . . Collin's exhaustive treatment of the forward panic is a major contribution to the literature and the term is certain to become a standard part of our vocabulary on violence."--John M. Hagedorn, Anthropos

"Covering infinitely recurrent strips of social action running from blustering confrontation to intimate physical attack, Violence is peppered with breakthrough insights, demonstrating the power of systematic theory and even concluding with that rarest of sociological contributions, a short list of eminently practical suggestions. The concept of 'forward panic' alone makes the book indispensable. This book is a milestone contribution to criminology, to micro-sociology, to the sociology of emotions, and to a field that knows no academic boundaries: the history of efforts to control violence. Randy Collins has developed a framework that should guide a generation of research."--Jack Katz, University of California, Los Angeles

"I have no doubt that this book will be hailed as one of the most important works on violence ever written. After reading it, it is difficult any longer to imagine that all that is needed for violence to occur is a motive to engage in violence. Collins argues persuasively that the situation must also be right if violence is actually to occur."--Donald Black, author of The Social Structure of Right and Wrong

"A masterful study of the microdynamics of violence. This book will undoubtedly provoke excitement and controversy among a wide group of readers, including educated nonspecialists as well as academics, journalists, law-enforcement professionals, and policymakers. Truly an original book."--Eiko Ikegami, author of The Taming of the Samurai

"Professor Collins has initiated a much needed discussion of violence, unencumbered by myth and make-believe. . . . After reading this excellent and highly readable volume, there are few myths left remain standing!"--P. A. J. Waddington, Policing

"Violence is a rare academic work, with both a convincing reappraisal of its scholarly terrain, and enough accessibility and useful advice to attract laymen. The writing is clear and direct--sometimes with a welcome touch of the colloquial--and well illustrated with photographs and charts."--Graeme Wood, New York Sun

"Insofar as his analysis has sought to highlight its micro-situational aspects, he must be applauded. In the future, only interdisciplinary research will be able to approach this topic with the same vigor, and coherence as Collins has provided us in this book."--Paul Armstrong, Canadian Journal of Sociology

"Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future."--World Book Industry

Winner of the 2011 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, American Sociological Association

"[T]he book is a notable attempt to develop a general sociological theory of interpersonal violence, and anyone interested in violence and peace can learn a great deal from it."--Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Journal of Peace Research

"Offering a wealth of observations...Randall Collins's overall theory is neat: violence is not easy, hence relatively rare. It is a compelling argument."--Jane Kilby, Times Higher Education

"Collins's Violence is a sourcebook for the oft-ignored and usually unseen obvious: We humans are bad at violence, even if civilization makes us a bit better at it."--David D. Laitin, Science0List of Illustrations and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1: The Micro-sociology of Violent Confrontations 1
Violent Situations 1
Micro-evidence: Situational Recordings, Reconstructions, and Observations 3
Comparing Situations across Types of Violence 8
Fight Myths 10
Violent Situations Are Shaped by an Emotional Field of Tension and Fear 19
Alternative Theoretical Approaches 20
Historical Evolution of Social Techniques for Controlling Confrontational Tension 25
Sources 29
Preview 32
The Complementarity of Micro and Macro Theories 34

PART ONE: The Dirty Secrets of Violence 37

Chapter 2: Confrontational Tension and Incompetent Violence 39
Brave, Competent and Evenly Matched? 39
The Central Reality: Confrontational Tension 41
Tension/Fear and Non-performance in Military Combat 43
Low Fighting Competence 57
Friendly Fire and Bystander Hits 59
Joy of Combat: Under What Conditions? 66
The Continuum of Tension/Fear and Combat Performance 68
Confrontational Tension in Policing and Non-Military Fighting 70
Fear of What? 73

Chapter 3: Forward Panic 83
Confrontational Tension and Release: Hot Rush, Piling On, Overkill 89
Atrocities of War 94
Caveat: The Multiple Causation of Atrocities 99
Asymmetrical Entrainment of Forward Panic and Paralyzed Victims 102
Forward Panics and One-Sided Casualties in Decisive Battles 104
Atrocities of Peace 112
Crowd Violence 115
Demonstrators and Crowd-Control Forces 121
The Crowd Multiplier 128
Alternatives to Forward Panic 132

Chapter 4: Attacking the Weak: I. Domestic Abuse 134
The Emotional Definition of the Situation 134
Background and Foreground Explanations 135
Abusing the Exceptionally Weak: Time-patterns from Normalcy to Atrocity 137
Three Pathways: Normal Limited Conflict, Severe Forward Panic, and Terroristic Torture Regime 141
Negotiating Interactional Techniques of Violence and Victimhood 148

Chapter 5: Attacking the Weak: II. Bullying, Mugging, and Holdups 156
The Continuum of Total Institutions 165
Muggings and Holdups 174
Battening on Interactional Weakness 186

PART TWO: Cleaned-up and Staged Violence 191

Chapter 6: Staging Fair Fights 193
Hero versus Hero 194
Audience Supports and Limits on Violence 198
Fighting Schools and Fighting Manners 207
Displaying Risk and Manipulating Danger in Sword and Pistol Duels 212
The Decline of Elite Dueling and Its Replacement by the Gunfight 220
Honor without Fairness: Vendettas as Chains of Unbalanced Fights 223
Ephemeral Situational Honor and Leap-Frog Escalation to One-Gun Fights 226
Behind the Fac?ade of Honor and Disrespect 229
The Cultural Prestige of Fair and Unfair Fights 237

Chapter 7: Violence as Fun and Entertainment 242
Moral Holidays 243
Looting and Destruction as Participation Sustainers 245
The Wild Party as Elite Potlatch 253
Carousing Zones and Boundary Exclusion Violence 256
End-Resisting Violence 259
Frustrated Carousing and Stirring up Effervescence 261
Paradox: Why Does Most Intoxication Not Lead to Violence? 263
The One-Fight-Per-Venue Limitation 270
Fighting as Action and Fun 274
Mock Fights and Mosh Pits 277

Chapter 8: Sports Violence 282
Sports as Dramatically Contrived Conflicts 283
Game Dynamics and Player Violence 285
Winning by Practical Skills for Producing Emotional Energy Dominance 296
The Timing of Player Violence: Loser-Frustration Fights and Turning-Point Fights 302
Spectators' Game-Dependent Violence 307
Offsite Fans' Violence: Celebration and Defeat Riots 311
Offsite Violence as Sophisticated Technique: Soccer Hooligans 315
The Dramatic Local Construction of Antagonistic Identities 324
Revolt of the Audience in the Era of Entertainers' Domination 328

PART THREE: Dynamics and Structure of Violent Situations 335

Chapter 9: How Fights Start, or Not 337
Normal Limited Acrimony: Griping, Whining, Arguing, Quarreling 338
Boasting and Blustering 345
The Code of the Street: Institutionalized Bluster and Threat 348
Pathways into the Tunnel of Violence 360

Chapter 10: The Violent Few 370
Small Numbers of the Actively and Competently Violent 370
Confrontation Leaders and Action-Seekers: Police 375
Who Wins? 381
Military Snipers: Concealed and Absorbed in Technique 381
Fighter Pilot Aces: Aggressively Imposing Momentum 387
In the Zone versus the Glaze of Combat: Micro-situational Techniques of Interactional Dominance 399
The 9/11 Cockpit Fight 409
11. Violence as Dominance in Emotional Attention Space 413
What Does the Rest of the Crowd Do? 413
Violence without Audiences: Professional Killers and Clandestine Violence 430
Confrontation-Minimizing Terrorist Tactics 440
Violent Niches in Confrontational Attention Space 448

Epilogue Practical Conclusions 463
Notes 467
References 527
Index 555