Violence and Society

by Larry Ray

Overview

This highly respected title comes revised and updated in a second edition to provide you with a contemporary overview of violence and society.

Clearly and lucidly written, this book offers broad coverage of theoretical debates, using case studies from the author’s own extensive research to bring the various theories alive. With a sociological approach throughout, it provides up-to-date coverage of key topics including gender and violence, collective violence and media and violence.

New to this edition:

• Three new chapters on ‘Collective Violence’, ‘Violence and the Visual’ and ‘Theories of Violence'
• Material on sex offending and the night-time economy
• Learning features in each chapter and an ‘at-a-glance’ overview within the introduction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473907911
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	10/24/2018
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.53(h) x (d)

About the Author

I joined the University of Kent in 1998. Before that I was in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. In 1996, I was visiting scholar, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. At Kent I was Head of the Department of Sociology and then SSPSSR between 1999-2001, and Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences between 2009-11. I am currently Director of Research for SSPSSR.

Table of Contents

Introduction - What is Violence?
1. Theories of Violence
2. Elias and the Civilizing Process
3. Violence and Urban Space
4. Gender and Violence
5. Domestic Violence
6. Explaining Homicide
7. The Politics of 'Hate Crime'
8. Collective Violence
9. Modernity and the Holocaust
10. Violence and the Visual
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

This new edition of Violence and Society skilfully updates the 2011 version, with a wealth of new theoretical and empirical material and two new chapters, on collective violence and the power of visual representations of violence and its effects. All the virtues of the first edition – empirical richness, theoretical breadth and intellectual imagination – are again in evidence and enhanced by the new material, including a brilliant demonstration of how microsocial theory can be developed to explain macrosocial violence. The book is an important and distinctive contribution to research and scholarship on violence.

David Smith

This is one of the most comprehensive general studies of violence available. In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition Larry Ray provides in-depth analysis of micro, mezzo and macro research on violence across many disciplines. The book successfully brings together advanced sociological theory and up to date empirical material. With its wide-ranging scope, accessible prose and a wealth of original insights this book will appeal equally to scholars and students of violence.

Siniša Maleševic

This is one of the most comprehensive general studies of violence available. In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition Larry Ray provides in-depth analysis of micro, mezzo and macro research on violence across many disciplines. The book successfully brings together advanced sociological theory and up to date empirical material. With its wide-ranging scope, accessible prose and a wealth of original insights this book will appeal equally to scholars and students of violence.

Siniša Maleševic

A brave, ambitious and original book that ranges widely across disciplines and from close analysis of local patterns of violence to some of the largest questions of human history and social theory. Compared with most criminological texts it is like a breath of fresh air
David Smith
Professor of Criminology, Lancaster University

Violence is one of these main human mysteries that deserve a strong renewal within social science. And today, a new generation of researchers is appearing, that takes this challenge seriously, and proposes new analytical tools in order to deal with violence. Discussing Norbert Elias, and introducing original ideas about masculinity, the body, or on the Holocaust, Larry Ray appears with this book as one of the leading scholars in this new generation
Michel Wieviorka
President ISA (2006-2010), and President of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris)

Larry Ray's Violence and Society offers an intelligent distillation of many crucial areas of study... The most obvious advantage of Ray's new book is that it often appears to forget that it is indeed a textbook. It roams around the broad intellectual panorama of the social sciences and humanities, overstepping restrictive disciplinary barriers without a care... Violence and Society is a book that criminology has sorely needed for some time, and a godsend for those of us teaching undergraduate courses on violence. It is that rarest of things: an intelligent and challenging textbook that goes beyond the received wisdom. I unreservedly recommend it.
Simon Winlow
British Journal of Criminology

[Violence and Society] provides an excellent analysis of many forms of violence and opens your eyes to the fact that violence is not as straightforward as many people think. The author has a vast array of experience researching in the field, from the ethno-nationalist civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, to projects on racial violence as part of the ESRC’s Violence Research Programme. This experience is evident in the way in which he has constructed and written the book... Violence and Society is easy to read and follow, making the text perfect for an undergraduate student delving into the field of violence. It helps to place many criminological theories in context. Postgraduate students will also find the book useful as a starting point for further research into violence. I enjoyed reading this book and will be recommending it to colleagues as an essential text on many criminology modules.
Rashid Aziz
Crime, Media, Culture

From the Publisher

Sociology has long focused on conflict but has relatively neglected violence as one of its forms and methods. In this new edition of Larry Ray's pioneering book, we have a thorough engagement with violence in its many modes and causes. He provides an intelligent social theory of violence that represents a powerful application of the sociological imagination, and like C Wright Mills, in many ways he offers us a striking diagnosis of the modern condition, with its propensity to violence.

John Brewer