College notes Introduction to violence studies
College 1 Definitions and types of violence
Definitions and types of violence
In this course we mostly use violence crime as the definition of violence, it is harmful and not
consensual.
Violence → the intentional us of physical force of power, threatened or actual, against another
person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in
injury, death, psychological harm, mal development or deprivation.
Crime → an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. An act harmful not only to some
individual but also to a community, society, or state.
When is an act regarded as a crime?
Consensus perspective → members of society by and large agree on what is right and wrong
Conflict perspective → those with political and economic power make laws to protect their interest;
at a disadvantage of those who do not have such powers.
Constructionist perspective → violence as a socially constructed phenomenon : a product of
individual.
How to classify violence
- Motive
- Relationships between victim and offender
- Victim characteristics
- Offender characteristic
- The criminal code
- Injury
Perspectives
Public health
- Focus on reducing probability of (risk of) harm
- Violence as intentional injury
- Prevention oriented
Criminal justice
- Focus on prevention through deterrence, incapacitation, and/or rehabilitation
- Violence as a crime
- Reaction oriented
Even in a place where no crime takes place they will introduce different types of crime because
society need defiance.
,Society of saints (Durkheim)
Kivivuori
Society needs a certain amount of crime, not more and not less, and cultural definitions would
expand and contract accordingly.
Contemporary society
- Risk society (Ulrich Beck)
- Culture of fear (Frank Furedi)
- High-crime society (Garland)
How can we explain increased sensitivity towards violence?
- Feminisation of society (Von Hofer)
- Increased life expectancy
- Affluence
- Medical victories over infectious diseases
- Increased digitalization
- Lower rates of ‘hard’ violence
,College 2 Researching violence
Researching violence
Data sources used in studying violence
Quantitively
- Official statistics → by official institution, criminal justice data (police reports; arrest data;
conviction data. Public health data (health data; mortality data).
- Survey → victim surveys (past month; past year; lifetime). Self-report surveys (criminal
behaviour; non-official data). It is not representative to the whole population.
- Experiments → natural experiment; case-control experiments; effectiveness studies.
- Coded data→ created dataset with numerical structure. A characteristic gets a number.
Qualitative
- Interviews → in depth interviews; life-history interviews: structured interviews; open
interviews; semi-structured interview
- Narratives → focus on what they have to say and how they say it. It is a co-constructer.
- Ethnographies → participant observation; long-term; immersive
- Documents → newspaper/media articals ; historical documents; human documents; official
documents (prison case files).
In violence data sources we often use quantitively sources.
Data triangulation is using a variety of data sources to overcome weakness in the data by
compensating these by the strength of other data, together, triangulation increases validity and
reliability.
Why use homicide data?
validity
Measurability → it is either one of 2 options (either someone is dead or they are alive). We use ratio.
We compare the same type of people.
Temperol analyses → time based numbers
Conceptual → homicide is the most severe crime. Cross-sectional studies: strongest relationship
between homicide and violent crime. Temporal studies: findings are mixed, strongest relationship
when focusing on changes in crime rates over time.
, College 3 Theories on violence
Violence as a type of crime
Public health
- Focus on reducing probability of (risk of) harm
- Violence as intentional injury
- Prevention oriented
Criminal justice
- Focus on prevention through deterrence, incapacitation, and/or rehabilitation
- Violence as a crime
- Reaction oriented
Deterrence is meant to scare the person who did the crime as the population. Show them what
happens when you do such crime.
Incapacitation is there to make sure you don’t do it again.
For these theories we are focussing on the criminal justice perspective.
Opportunity theory
By Cohen & Felson (1979) and it emphasis on criminal event. It
contains three elements of crime:
- Motivated offender (you have an motivation because it
something you want or need.
- Suitable victim
Valuable → to the person
Inert → doesn’t know I’m coming
Visible → you can see what you want
Accessible → there is a way for you to get it
- Absence of a capable guardian (there is no one who can
stop you at that moment)
The opportunity theory also says that there is routines influencing violence. Their routines on a daily
basis revolve around the where or what they are going to offend. Microlevel and macrolevel.
- Transport
- Work
- Residence
- School
- Nighttime activities
- Weather and climate
- ‘hot spots’ places of illegal activities (alcohol, drugs, firearms)
College 1 Definitions and types of violence
Definitions and types of violence
In this course we mostly use violence crime as the definition of violence, it is harmful and not
consensual.
Violence → the intentional us of physical force of power, threatened or actual, against another
person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in
injury, death, psychological harm, mal development or deprivation.
Crime → an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. An act harmful not only to some
individual but also to a community, society, or state.
When is an act regarded as a crime?
Consensus perspective → members of society by and large agree on what is right and wrong
Conflict perspective → those with political and economic power make laws to protect their interest;
at a disadvantage of those who do not have such powers.
Constructionist perspective → violence as a socially constructed phenomenon : a product of
individual.
How to classify violence
- Motive
- Relationships between victim and offender
- Victim characteristics
- Offender characteristic
- The criminal code
- Injury
Perspectives
Public health
- Focus on reducing probability of (risk of) harm
- Violence as intentional injury
- Prevention oriented
Criminal justice
- Focus on prevention through deterrence, incapacitation, and/or rehabilitation
- Violence as a crime
- Reaction oriented
Even in a place where no crime takes place they will introduce different types of crime because
society need defiance.
,Society of saints (Durkheim)
Kivivuori
Society needs a certain amount of crime, not more and not less, and cultural definitions would
expand and contract accordingly.
Contemporary society
- Risk society (Ulrich Beck)
- Culture of fear (Frank Furedi)
- High-crime society (Garland)
How can we explain increased sensitivity towards violence?
- Feminisation of society (Von Hofer)
- Increased life expectancy
- Affluence
- Medical victories over infectious diseases
- Increased digitalization
- Lower rates of ‘hard’ violence
,College 2 Researching violence
Researching violence
Data sources used in studying violence
Quantitively
- Official statistics → by official institution, criminal justice data (police reports; arrest data;
conviction data. Public health data (health data; mortality data).
- Survey → victim surveys (past month; past year; lifetime). Self-report surveys (criminal
behaviour; non-official data). It is not representative to the whole population.
- Experiments → natural experiment; case-control experiments; effectiveness studies.
- Coded data→ created dataset with numerical structure. A characteristic gets a number.
Qualitative
- Interviews → in depth interviews; life-history interviews: structured interviews; open
interviews; semi-structured interview
- Narratives → focus on what they have to say and how they say it. It is a co-constructer.
- Ethnographies → participant observation; long-term; immersive
- Documents → newspaper/media articals ; historical documents; human documents; official
documents (prison case files).
In violence data sources we often use quantitively sources.
Data triangulation is using a variety of data sources to overcome weakness in the data by
compensating these by the strength of other data, together, triangulation increases validity and
reliability.
Why use homicide data?
validity
Measurability → it is either one of 2 options (either someone is dead or they are alive). We use ratio.
We compare the same type of people.
Temperol analyses → time based numbers
Conceptual → homicide is the most severe crime. Cross-sectional studies: strongest relationship
between homicide and violent crime. Temporal studies: findings are mixed, strongest relationship
when focusing on changes in crime rates over time.
, College 3 Theories on violence
Violence as a type of crime
Public health
- Focus on reducing probability of (risk of) harm
- Violence as intentional injury
- Prevention oriented
Criminal justice
- Focus on prevention through deterrence, incapacitation, and/or rehabilitation
- Violence as a crime
- Reaction oriented
Deterrence is meant to scare the person who did the crime as the population. Show them what
happens when you do such crime.
Incapacitation is there to make sure you don’t do it again.
For these theories we are focussing on the criminal justice perspective.
Opportunity theory
By Cohen & Felson (1979) and it emphasis on criminal event. It
contains three elements of crime:
- Motivated offender (you have an motivation because it
something you want or need.
- Suitable victim
Valuable → to the person
Inert → doesn’t know I’m coming
Visible → you can see what you want
Accessible → there is a way for you to get it
- Absence of a capable guardian (there is no one who can
stop you at that moment)
The opportunity theory also says that there is routines influencing violence. Their routines on a daily
basis revolve around the where or what they are going to offend. Microlevel and macrolevel.
- Transport
- Work
- Residence
- School
- Nighttime activities
- Weather and climate
- ‘hot spots’ places of illegal activities (alcohol, drugs, firearms)
