Control of Violence

This book asserts that modern society will face an increasing loss of control over violence. It then defines "control" and "violence" before exploring what effects, or counter-effects, various forms of control can have on various forms of violence.

The Control of Violence in Modern Society, starts from the hypothesis that in modern society we will face an increasing loss of control over certain phenomena of violence. This leads to unpredictable escalations and violence can no longer be contained adequately by the relevant control regimes, such as police, state surveillance institutions, national repression apparatuses and international law. However, before investigating this hypothesis from an internationally and historically comparative perspective, the terms and "tools" for this undertaking have to be rendered more precisely. Since both "control" and "violence" are all but clear-cut terms but rather highly debatable and contested concepts that may take multiple connotations. The main question is whether an increase in certain forms of violence can be explained by the failure or, in turn, "overeffectiveness" of certain control mechanisms. It is asked, for instance, which contribution religion can make to limit violence and, in turn, which destructive potential religion might have in its fundamentalist form. Moreover, the concept of individual self-control as well as social institutions and strategies of collective disengagement and de-radicalization are investigated with regard to their potential for controlling violence.

The Control of Violence in Modern Society concludes with a re-examination of the hypothesis of a loss of control by specifying in what cases and under which circumstances we can speak of a loss of control over violence.

2. Control and loss of control in an historical perspective

Policining youth protests and juvenile delinquency in Germany from the 1950s until 1980s

Anarchist terrorism in imperial Germany and third Republic France

Deescalation by Communication? Dealing with Left-Wing Terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s

Ethnic riots in situations of loss of control: regime change, civil war and revolution as opportunity structures for anti-Jewish violence in 19-20th century Europe

Control of violence by gun-control. Concepts and activities in the German Empire 1871 – 1914

Loss of Control over Small-Group Clandestine Violence: The Case of German Terrorism in the Long Twentieth-Century

Making war and crafting peace in contemporary Africa
The neglected significance of skill formation in control of violence

Violence control beyond the state? The case of DR Congo

"You can’t be donated power": Altruistic Intervention, Political Violence, and Post-War Reconstruction – the role of ‘external’ actors in the control of violence

3. Multidisciplinary perspectives on violence

Nature of Violence

The modernity of violence: decivilizing processes

Giving an end to violence

Emerging evidence for the theory of low-status compensation and its relationship to violence

4. The Micro-Level: School-Shootings

School Shootings: Perceived losses of control – attempts to regain control

School violence and its control in the USA and Germany since the 1950s

School shootings: Specific problems of control

Prevention, Intervention and Coping with School Shootings (reprint)

5. The Meso-Level: Terrorism

Local roots and transnationalism of ‘Islamist’ terrorism

Out of control? Explaining terrorist violence from a Jihadi perspective

Transformations of terrorism. The performative character of political violence.

The radical milieu: pathways to joining terrorist groups

The Grotesque Body and Mystical Conquest: The Case of Shi‘i Cult of Martyrdom

6. The Macro Level: Violence in fragile states

Modern Barbarism and the propects of civilization. Eliasion themes in an African context

Controlling violence in the failed state: An examination of the UN’s disarmament, demobilization and reintegration

Using fuel to put out a fire? Violence control in the context of ‘fragile’ states – the case of vigilantism in Nigeria

Oil in the Niger Delta – militancy and the challenge of violence control

Climate change and conflict

7. Mechanisms and "tools" of control

8. Case studies on the mechanism of control

Religions actors and their potential of containing violence

Impact of religion on prevention and control of violence

Religious communities as violent actors

Self-Control and the Management of Violence

Conscience as an element of self-control

Opportunities for de-radicalizing radical milieus

Learning terrorism behind individual and collective disengagement

Violence, control and the body

Cross-National Homicide Trends in the Latter Decades of the 20th Century: Losses and Gains in Institutional Control?

9. Conclusion

Loss of control? In what cases and under what circumstances.