Abt Associates Criminologist Henry Brownstein Co-Edits Violence Theory Book
March 7, 2005
Henry Brownstein, Director of the Abt Associates Center on Crime, Drugs, and Justice, served as co-editor of the recently published book, Violence: From Theory to Research, with Margaret Zahn of Research Triangle Institute and Shelly Jackson of the University of Virginia. The book presents a variety of theories about violence and shows how these theories are applied to particular social phenomena.
Dr. Brownstein, a noted criminologist, stated, "The idea for this book came from a meeting sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. Leading theorists and researchers in the field were brought together to share their ideas about how best to explain violence. From that experience we learned that we were a long way from having an integrated theory of violence. This book addresses that problem and in doing so advances our understanding of violence."
Dr. Brownstein and his co-editors point out that, by definition, a theory "helps us to make sense of what otherwise does not make sense." Different chapters of the book present, for example, a general strain theory approach to violence, a social learning model of violence and terrorism, and theoretical work toward a radical ecology of urban violence.
A young mother watches as her car rolls down a boat ramp and into a lake while her two sons, ages three years and 14 months, are strapped inside. We sympathize when we believe her story that a carjacker took her car and killed her children. When we learn that her story is a lie and that she did it herself to be free of her children, our interpretation of the situation and therefore our response to it are likely to be different.
A 15-year-old boy in Springfield, Oregon, walks into his school cafeteria one day and opens fire on his classmates, killing two and wounding more than 20. A 14-year old in Paducah, Kentucky, fires at a prayer circle of his fellow students, killing three and wounding five. School officials and psychologists theorize that their actions can be explained in terms of motives and circumstances.
The role of theory in social and behavioral science is to help us explain and thereby understand diverse social situations such as those described above. In the case of violence, theory guides the way in which we think and what we know about why people violate or harm other people. Chapters in this book present a variety of theories about violence and show how these theories are applied to particular social phenomena. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to help better explain and understand violence.
The general strain theory lists ten specific types of strain that should increase the likelihood of crime (e.g., child abuse and neglect, negative secondary school experiences) and four that should not (e.g., failure to achieve personal goals like occupational success, the excessive demands associated with conventional jobs that are well rewarded). The social-learning model proposes that conforming and deviant behavior are actually produced by the same social-psychological process. The chapter on the ecology of urban violence examines the overlap between the urban ecology of race and class, the ecology of urban violence, the distribution of lead pollution, and the behavioral consequences of exposure to lead.
According to Brownstein, "Much of the work we do at the Abt Associates Center on Crime, Drugs, and Justice is related to the problem of violence. Our project work related to violence also benefits from our ability to combine the knowledge and expertise among Center staff with that of staff from other parts of the company. For example, with our colleagues in the Center for Homeland Security we can do research on terrorist violence, with our colleagues in the Company's education practice we can study school violence and violence among youth, and with our colleagues in the public health practice we can conduct studies on violence in families and communities."
