American Violence Research Articles

American Violence and Public Policy: An Update of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Edited by Lynn A. Curtis. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985. Pp. xi + 263. $23.00.)

American Violence and Public Policy: An Update of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Edited by Lynn A. Curtis. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985. Pp. xi + 263. $23.00.)

American Violence and Public Policy: An Update of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Edited by Lynn A. Curtis. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985. Pp. xi + 263. $23.00.)

as it clearly demonstrates that the dualism found in Western medicine that derived from the Eleatic school of Greek philosophy is an artifact and that the psyche and soma are indivisi¬ ble. Another strength of the book is that its chapters are written by dif¬ ferent authors, resulting in some being quite theoretical and technical and others more down-to-earth and easy to read; thus, the novice will find chapters that are informative and useful, as will those physicians who are better read in this field of study. A weakness of the multiple author¬ ship is that there are some repetitions and differences in viewpoint and in writing style. In conclusion, it is the rare book that will hold the interest of both the psychiatrist and the internist, but this is one of them.

REVIEWS

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access AMERICAN VIOLENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY. Edited by LYNN A. CURTIS. [London: Yale University Press, 1985. 263 pp. £23·00.] Ken Pease Ken Pease Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 25, Issue 4, October 1985, Pages 417–418, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047573 Published: 01 October 1985

Racial Discrimination in Criminal Sentencing: A Critical Evaluation of the Evidence with Additional Evidence on the Death Penalty

Reevaluation of published research on racial bias in criminal sentencing and of data on execution rates by race from 1930 to 1967 and on death-sentencing rates from 1967 to 1978 indicates that, except in the South, black homicide offenders have been less likely than whites to receive a death sentence or be executed. For the 11% of executions imposed for rape, discrimination against black defendants who had raped white victims was substantial, but only in the South. Evidence for noncapital sentencing also largely contradicts a hypothesis of overt discrimination against black defendants. Although black offender--white victim crimes are generally punished more severely than crimes involving other racial combinations, this appears to be due to legally relevant factors related to such offenses. Crimes with black victims, however, are less likely than those with white victims to result in imposition of the death penalty. The devalued status of black crime victims is one of several hypothetical explanations of the more lenient sentencing of black defendants. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1981. Copyright © 1981 by the American Sociological Association) VioLit keywords: Racial Differences Racial Factors Racial Discrimination Correctional Decision Making Sentencing Criminal Justice System Capital Punishment Death Penalty Black-White Comparison Caucasian Adult Caucasian Offender Caucasian Violence African American Adult African American Offender African American Violence 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

Racial Characteristics and the Imposition of the Death Penalty

This paper explores the question of whether death penalty statutes passed after the 1972 Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia successfully eliminate racial disparities in capital cases. Over 600 homicide indictments in twenty Florida counties in 1976 and 1977 were examined, focusing on homicides between strangers (nonprimary homicides). Those accused of murdering whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those accused of murdering blacks. This trend is due primarily to the higher probability for those accused of murdering whites to be indicted for first degree murder. When controlling for race of the victim, the data do not clearly support the hypothesis that race of the defendant is strongly associated with the probability of a first degree murder indictment or the imposition of the death penalty. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1981. Copyright © 1981 by the American Sociological Association) Racial Differences Racial Factors Racial Discrimination Correctional Decision Making Sentencing Criminal Justice System Capital Punishment Death Penalty Black-White Comparison Caucasian Adult Caucasian Offender Caucasian Violence African American Adult African American Offender African American Violence Homicide Offender 1970s 07-02

Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives

A total reworking of this 1968 bestseller, with nine entirely new chapters, taking into account the radical changes in American society and American violence over the last decade. Of interest to anyone concerned with the interpretation of America's turbulent past and the assessment of its future.

Law and Disorder on the Early Frontier: Marion County, Indiana, 1823-1850

It is fashionable to blame much of American violence on the frontier and to cite the history of frontier lawlessness and vigilantism in support of that argument. Recent studies have concluded that the frontier environment distinguished by excessive individualism, a scramble for material advantage which pitted man against nature and man against man, and an absence of legal institutions constituted an invitation to violence, which the repeated and prolonged frontier experience embedded deep in the national character.l But there are several reasons to doubt such a close identification

Cato's Mirror: The Face of Violence in American Autobiography

Terence malick's remarkable film of 1974,Badlands, contains a sequence which vividly epitomizes the experience of American violence and deftly connects it to the impulse deep within even the most inarticulate of victims and violators to turn pain into art. Like its cinematically inferior predecessorBonnie and Clyde, Badlandsis based upon actual history—the Charles Starkweather case of 1958 in which a pair of Nebraska teenagers went on a murderous rampage, killing eleven persons including the girl's parents and baby sister. In the film, Kit and Holly flee to the prairie shack of Cato, Kit's fellow worker on the town garbage truck. Cato tries to sneak away and sound the alarm. Kit shoots his friend in the back. Cato staggers indoors, bleeding but silent, and collapses on the bed. As Kit and Holly circle aimlessly around the room, the dying man does something oddly significant—he picks up a mirror and carefully examines his face in its surface. Kit says nothing and Holly offers neither apology nor help. Instead she innocently inquires about Cato's pet spider. What does it eat? Does it ever bite? “It never bitme,” he gasps laconically. After he dies Kit drags the body into the shed, then stalks up and down outside gesturing vehemently to the corpse. Like other victims in this brilliant, disturbing film, Cato has been caught in the spiraling coils of Kit's almost voiceless and casual violence.

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism.

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism.

Race and Involvement in Common Law Personal Crimes

Most contemporary sociological theories of crime predict that blacks will be overrepresented among arrestees in common law personal crimes. These theories differ, however, in the extent to which this overrepresentation is attributed to disproportionate involvement in criminal offenses vs. criminal justice system selection biases. Studies that have relied upon official data have generally supported the differential involvement hypothesis, whereas studies relying on self-report techniques generally have supported the differential selection hypothesis. National victimization survey data on victims' reports of racial characteristics of offenders are introduced as a third measurement technique in order to shed additional light on this controversy. These data for rape, robbery, and assault, are generally consistent with official data on arrestees and support the differential involvement hypothesis. Some evidence of differential selection for criminal justice processing is found; however, most of the racial disproportionality in arrest data is shown by victimization survey data to be attributable to the substantially greater involvement of blacks in the common law personal crimes of rape, robbery, and assault. These results suggest that traditional admonitions against using arrest data as an index of involvement in these crimes may be overly cautious. In fact, the results imply that more caution should attend the use of self-report data in this vein and that more attention should be given to sampling and instrument concerns in self-report techniques. As currently used, the method may not be adequate for assessing the correlates of serious illegal conduct. The results also suggest that research emphasis be placed on those theories, such as the subcultural and differential opportunity perspectives, which attempt to explain differential racial involvement in these common law personal crimes. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the American Sociological Association) Minority Overrepresentation African American Adult African American Crime African American Offender African American Violence Rape Offender Sexual Assault Offender Robbery Offender Physical Assault Offender Racial Factors Arrest Rates Offender Arrest Violence Against Women 07-02

Some Remarks on the Prohibition of Handguns

This article, taken from a speech given in a symposium on American violence sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, considers the cost-effectiveness of federal legislation that would impose the New York System, or any other system, of banning handguns, nationwide. Proponents of such a ban too optimistically assume that murderers would not simply find another instrument to commit the crime. Among other things, one must consider costs associated with jailing thousands of otherwise law-abiding people who choose to continue to possess handguns and enforcing a restrictive national permit requirement with what would require massive police power.

Black Female Gangs in Philadelphia

No abstract available. African American Offender African American Juvenile African American Female Female Offender Juvenile Offender Juvenile Female Juvenile Gang Gang Member Role Pennsylvania African American Violence Juvenile Violence Female Violence Gender Comparison Gender Differences Gang Causes Urban Youth 11-99

Militia and Public Order in Nineteenth-Century America

“ Tranquility is the first duty of every citizen ” has never been an American motto. “ What is impressive to one who begins to learn about American violence,” Richard Hofstadter once remarked, is its “ extraordinary frequency, its sheer commonplaceness in our history, its persistence into very recent and contemporary times, and its rather abrupt contrast with our pretensions to singular national virtue.” If, as Hofstadter complains, violence has been overlooked in American history, the maintenance of peace, particularly the significant role of the militia in public disorders — “ the most important single form of domestic violence in American history ” — has been almost totally ignored by historians. For example, Marcus Cunliffe's otherwise excellent study of the military mind in ante-bellum United States devotes two sentences to the subject, a rather surprising omission in view of the, quite correct, contemporary opinion that “the Militia are, after all … neither more nor less than an Auxiliary Police Force, and for the last forty-odd years that is the only duty they have ever been called on to perform.”

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism.

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism.

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantis

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantis

Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism

These essays, written by leading historian of violence and Presidential Commission consultant Richard Maxwell Brown, consider the challenges posed to American society by the criminal, turbulent, and depressed elements of American life and the violent response of the established order. Covering violent incidents from colonial American to the present, Brown presents illuminating discussions of violence and the American Revolution, black-white conflict from slave revolts to the black ghetto riots of the 1960s, the vigilante tradition, and two of America's most violent regions--Central Texas, which witnessed some of the nastiest Indian wars of the West, and secessionist leader South Carolina's old Back Country. Brown's incisive look into the past holds profound implications for our present as well as our future.

Ghetto Revolts: The Politics of Violence in American Cities.Joe R. Feagin , Harlan Hahn

<i>Ghetto Revolts: The Politics of Violence in American Cities.</i>Joe R. Feagin , Harlan Hahn