Criminal Justice 401U / W
Understanding Violence
Dr. Lombardo
General Course Description
This course may be used to meet the following requirements:
1. Upper Level general education "U" course: Subject Fields (pre-1998 catalogs)
2. Writing Intensive Course in Criminal Justice Major (1998-2000 catalog)
3. Part of "Explorations in Conflict and Its Resolution: Cluster"(Upper Level General Education alternative).
The Cluster consists 9 hours of courses from the following:
· HIST 410: War as Human Experience
· POLS 462: Ethnic Conflict in the New World Order
· ENGL 472: The U.S. Government and the Media: Viet Nam
· ECON 454: Economic Development
· CRJS 401U/W: Understanding Violence
· COMM 421: Communication and Conflict Management
UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE
The overall goal of this course to help you learn concepts and to expose you to experiences to help you understand one of the most perplexing forms of behavior we engage in: violence.
On Going List of Example of Violence:
During the past few years, violence in many forms has gained more and more national and international attention. Many of yesterday's incidents fade in memory as they are replaced by more recent incidents. Not that many years ago we had examples like: Amy Fisher, drive‑by‑shootings, the killing of James Jordan, hate violence, Rodney King and the Los Angeles police, riots in Los Angeles, the World Trade center bombing, genocide in Rwanda, triple executions, O. J. Simpson, Kurt Cobain's suicide, the shooting of four Hasidic Jews on the Brooklyn Bridge, the continuing debate over the contribution of guns to violence, prison riots in Lucasville, Ohio, the Branch Davidians and the government in Waco, Texas, ethnic cleansing and rape in the former Yugoslavia, and remembrances of the Holocaust during World War II have focused attention on the issue of violence; police involvement in killings in New Orleans, the alleged torture of a Haitian by NYPD officers, violence directed at women in previously all male military academies, celebrity assaults on paparazzi, children killing children in many parts of the country, bombings at embassies in Africa, bombings in Ireland, and the racially motivated killing of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas and sniper killings in Northern Virginia,
Today, terrorist attacks in London, assaults and murders we read about in our local newspapers everyday, the suicide bombings in Iraq, the killing and sexual assault of children, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegations of torture in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, push into the background incidents such as Columbine, the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, the fighting in Liberia, the killing of a city council candidate in NYC, the continuation of suicide bombers in Iraq and military reprisals in the Middle East, the alleged sexual assault by Kobe Bryant. The list could go on and on. I am sure we all have examples to which we pay a great deal of attention.
All these highly publicized examples of violence should not distract our attention from the less publicized but no less real experiences of suicide, violence against child and woman, rape and institutional violence that have become so much a part of our every day personal experience. Violence in our schools, homes, workplaces, streets and media (real, fictional, and virtual) comes at us more and more, seemingly without end.
Violence usually involves people doing harm to or causing pain to other people. Sometimes harm is caused by individuals, sometimes by groups, sometimes by institutions of government. At times the harm appears random and needless. At other times, violence is inflicted purposely and in a calculated manner. Sometimes violence is directed against those the perpetrator loves (family members, lovers); in other instances, the victim is only a number and the inflictor of pain is merely doing a job (soldiers, police, executioners). Violence is perpetrated in the name of both love and hate, both of both anger and indifference, both in the name peace and war, both the for the revolution and the status quo. Violence is used to instill terror and to combat terror. The list of violence contexts and rationalizations for violence is seemingly endless. It is clear that violence has been and is a pervasive and multi‑faceted phenomenon in our world.
Surviving as a link to Violence:
As important as all of these examples and contexts of violence are it also important to recognize those upon whom this violence is inflicted. This is important not just because those who suffer violence must be recognized, but also because many who perpetrate violence are themselves victims of violence processes. The victim of one form of violence often becomes the perpetrator of another. This connection between being victimized and surviving violence and doing violence is an important component of what we will explore in this course.
Our task in this course is to begin to make some sense out of all of this. We will try to learn about violence and conflict from a perspective that may help us avoid and prevent violence and resolve conflicts in non-violent ways. As you go through the course you will be studying what many scholars and observers have had to say about violence in its various forms and about people's reactions to violence. More importantly, however, you will be learning something about yourself and your attitudes toward various forms of violence and those who survive violence. Some of what we will read, see and discuss will be unsettling. The reality use of violence and its aftermath are seldom pleasant.
However, I believe we must come face to face with these realities if we desire to understand and help to reduce the amount of violence in our world. I hope this course will be a worthwhile and creative endeavor for all of us.
In this course we will study everything from suicide to genocide. We will look at the dynamics of the "violence process" that is how people who under everyday conditions don't do violence are transformed into people who do violence to themselves or others. In developing our understanding of this process we will began to see what these varied forms of violence have in common.
In addition, we will be studying the impact of violence on those who bear its brunt and on those who inflict it. This is important because it allows us to see how forces of everyday life, our approach to them and the processes of violence maintain themselves. Finally, we will start to learn about some techniques for breaking out of the circular violence process, techniques that will empower us and allow us to empower others to do the same, that is, stop the violence process.
REQUIRED READINGS:
Baker, Mark, NAM: THE VIETNAM WAR IN THE WORDS OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO FOUGHT THERE. NY: Cooper Square Press, 2002.
Swofford, Anthony JARHEAD: A MARINE'S CHRONICLE OF THE GULF WAR AND OTHER BATTLES. NY: Scribner, 2003.
Judith Herman, TRAUMA AND RECOVERY: THE AFTERMATH OF VIOLENCE FROM DOMESTIC ABUSE TO POLITICAL TERROR. NY: Basic Books, 1997.
THE SPECTRUM OF VIOLENCE. Available in "Course Documents" on Blackboard.
INTRODUCTION: Lucien X. Lombardo, "Pedagogy and Violence," Paper delivered at the Annual Conference if the Society for Values in Higher Education, Colorado Springs, CO, August, 2000.
Background for Understanding Violence
1. Robin M. Williams, "Legitimate and Illegitimate Uses of Violence" from Violence and the Politics of Research, W.Gaylin, et.al. (eds), NY: Plenum, 1981, p. 23‑45).
2. Viola Bernard, et.al. "Dehumanization" , in N. Sanford and Craig Comstock (eds) Sanctions for Evil: Sources of Social Destructiveness. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971, (102‑124).
3. James Comb, "The Triumph of Phony Culture" from Phony Culture: Confidence and Malaise in Contemporary America. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Press, 1994 (pp. 1-29).
4. Sam Keen, "To Create an Enemy" (from Faces of the Enemy, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986 pp.9‑14).
Some Theoretical Perspectives
5. Bruce Perry, "Incubated in Terror: Neurodevelopmental Factors in the Cycle of Violence" in J. Osofsky, Ed) Children, Youth and Violence. NY: Guilford Press, 1996.
6. Hans Toch, "The Violence Prone Person: A Typology" (from Violent Men. Chicago: Aldine, 1969, pp.133‑177)(American Psychological Association).
7. Edwin Megargee, "Algebra of Aggression - Variables Associated with Criminal Violence," from M. Wolfgang and N. Weiner (eds), Criminal Violence. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage 1982 (124-160).
8. John Monahan and Diedre Klassen, "Situational Approaches to Understanding and Predicting Individual Violent Behavior," from M. Wolfgang and N. Weiner (Eds.) Criminal Violence, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage 1982, (292-319).
Violence and Children
9. Alice Miller, "Breeding Grounds of Hatred: Guides to Child Rearing from Two Centuries", from For Your Own Good. NY: Noonday Press, 1990, pp.8‑32.
10. James Garbarino, "How Vulnerability Becomes Bad Behavior," from Lost Boys. NY: The Free Press, 1999 (63-96).
Violence and Women
11. D. Scully and J. Marolla, "Convicted Rapists' Vocabulary of Motive: Excuses and Justifications" (from Social Problems, 31/5, 1984 (pp.530‑544).
12. Patricia Martin, et.al.,"Fraternities and Rape on Campus" (from Gender and Society, 3/4 1989, pp.457‑473)
13. K. Ferrraro and J. Johnson, "How Women Experience Battering: The Process of Victimization", Social Problems 30/3, 1983, (pp. 325 ‑339)
14. Dee L.R. Graham, et.al, "Survivors of Terror: Battered Women, Hostages and the Stockholm Syndrome" (from Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse, K. Yllo and M. Bograd (eds), Sage: Newbury Park, CA, 1988, (pp.217‑233)
Hate Violence
15. Gregory Herek, "Psychological Heterosexism and Anti‑Gay Violence: The Social Psychology of Bigotry and Bashing", From Gregory Herek and Kevin Berrill (eds), Hate Crimes. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992 (pp.149‑169).
16. Linda Garnets, Gregory Herek and Barrie Levy, "Violence and Victimization of Lesbians and Gay Men: Mental Health Consequences," From Gregory Herek and Kevin Berrill (eds). Hate Crimes. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992 (pp.207‑226).
17. Albert Memmi, "Does the Colonial Exist" and "Situations of the Colonized" from The Colonized and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press, 1965 (3-18 and 90-118).
Terrorism:
18. Ernest Evans, "The Mind of a Terrorist: How Terrorists See Strategy and Morality", World Affairs, Spring 2005, Vol 167, pp. 175-80.
19. Randy Borum, "Understanding The Terrorist Mind Set", The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, July 2003, 72/7, pp. 7-13.
Institutional Violence
19. Robert Johnson, "Institutional Violence," from J. Gibbs and A. Campbell (eds) Violent Transactions. London: Blackwell, 1986.
20. Lucien Lombardo, "Collective Violence in Prisons," in C. Summers and E. Markusen (eds) Collective Violence NY: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999 (125-145)
21. John Conroy, "Torture" from Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People NY: Alfred A Knopf, 2002, (88-122)
22. Federico Allodi, ET AL, "Physical and Psychiatric Effects of Torture", from Eric Stover and Elena Nightingale, The Breaking of Bodies and Minds. NY: W.H. Freeman, 1985 (pp. 58-78).
23. Janice Gibson and Mika Haritos-Fatouros, "The Education of a Torturer", Psychology Today. November 1986, p. 50+.
War
THE SOLDIER
24. Mark Baker, NAM. NY Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.
THE POLICY MAKER:
25. Loren Baritz, "God's Country and American Know-How", from Backfire, NY: Morrow, 1985 (19-54).
26. Robert J. Lifton, "The Auschwitz -Self: Psychological Aspects of Doubling," from The Nazi-Doctors.
Genocide:
27. Neil Kressel, "The Haters' Mind," from Mass Hate. NY: Westview Press, 2002, pp. 1-10.
28. Mahmood Mamdani, "Thinking about Genocide," from When Victims Become Killers" Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001, pp. 1-18.
29. Iris Chang, "The Path to Nanking", from The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, NY: Basic Books, 1997, pp. 19-35.
