Rethinking Violence

This book provides the first, multi-disciplinary analysis of the concept and phenomenon of violence. It brings together in one volume a selection of different approaches and methodologies to the study of violence, including criminology, international relations, political science, history of political thought, psychology, sociology, public health, economics and philosophy.

This book was published as a special issue of Global Crime.

Violence is a prevalent and persistent theme in all aspects of human affairs. A comprehensive understanding of violence therefore requires exposure to the research coming out from all the disciplines in the social sciences: their different methodologies, findings and insights.

This book promotes the merits of an interdisciplinary agenda. By bringing together scholars of violence working in political science, political theory, international relations, economics, philosophy, sociology, psychology and public health, this book explores the complexity of violence and the interface between the empirical and normative dimensions central to this problem. The aim is to investigate the ways in which a correct understanding of this phenomenon must deal with both empirical and normative issues.

There is a tendency for scholars of violence to work predominantly within the narrow parameters of their own discipline: philosophers tend to read fellow philosophers on violence; criminologists tend to rely on the work of fellow criminologists; sociologists tend to trust the writings of fellow sociologists; and so on. This book invites the reader to embrace an interdisciplinary approach towards the universal problem of violence. (178 words)