VIOLENCE AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM

Transcription

1 ,_A, Volence AMlTA ETZON L : ( VOLENCE AS A SOCAL PROBLEM Throughout hstory, volence- kllng, mamng, and the wllful dwtructon of property-occurs n a1 socetes Volence s not only common durnc wars but s part of everyday lfe One Amercan s murdered every 39 mnutes: one forcbly raped every 17 mnutes; one subject to aggravated asalt e:ery two mnutes; and one robbed every two mnutes' Much of ths daly vnlenc? s vewed as the result of devant acts by crmnals or the mentally ll, or of temporary escaatons of conflcts among socal groups, such as labor m d management, blacks and whtes Unlke ths "routne" volence, there are perods n hstory and n contemporary socetes n whch volence rses suffcently n scope and ctmsty to threaten the very organzaton of socety Durng the colencn n Colomba for example, n the decade from 1949 to 1955, about 180,000 persons were klled out of a populaton of about 12 mllon* For a whle, ths stuator 'Federal Bureau of nvestgaton Unform Crme Reprts for the Unted States (Washngton, D C: U S Dept of Justce, 1966) Chart No 16, p 29 'German C Campos, 0 F Borda, and E U Luna, La Volenca en Colomhrn tomo 1 (Colomba: Edcones Tercer Mundo, 1962) p 292 U S Army, Arra Hardbtmk /or Cdornba (Washngton, D C: U S Government Prntng Offce 1964) pp

2 ' 710 Volence! prevented safe pnssngc!et alonc government control throug!~ l;r~t* t~t~,f; of Colomba The economy was dsrupted and pcoplo wcrc prcc~cl~d \\ ther securty rather than other actvtes-that s the norrnd functon n< of socal lfe n the areas afkcted was serously undermned Cven more extreme are genocdes, n whch attempts are made to wpe out a wh& people, lke the Armenans n Turkey, or the Jews n Europe durng the Naz perod n stll other perods, a threat to socal organzaton s perceved, but not necessarly because volence has reached an explosve level hut because: (1) t s perceved as rsng to hgher levels than prevously, or (2) the socety has become aware that t s more volent than some other socetes, or be cause (3) the socety sceks actvely, as a matter of polcy, to reduce the level of volence t s experencng ' n the 1960's, the amount of all major forms of voence n the Unted States was hgh, rsng, and perceved by many as threatenng the socal fabrc Rots n ctes were common: campus unrest was unprecedentedly frequent; 588,840 volent crmes were reported n one year, 1963; serous crme was up about 100 percent from 1958 Presdent John F Kennedy, Reverend Martn Luther Kng, Jr and Senator Robert Kennedx were vctms of poltcal assassnaton The Unted States was nvolved n 3 war By 1970,42,000 Amercan servcemen had been klled, besde South Vetnamese and 643,000 Sorth Vetnamese and Vetcong (these tlgures do not nclude cvlans) Wthn the Unted States tself the rate of deaths by homcde was exceptonally hgh n comparson wth other ndustralzed eocetes Deaths Due to Homcde (rate per 100,000 populaton) Unted States Canada England and Wales Austra Australa Mexco Gunea Colomba Costa Rca Uruguay 60 (1966) 13 (1966) 07 (1966) 11 (1966) 15 (1966) 189 (1967) 311 (1967) 213 (1966) 40 (1966) 45 (1966)

3 a- Amta Etzon 71 1 :, * ' - - *: L - *j ' t The perspectve one takes n regard to volence largely drtermnes whetheror not one sew t as a socal problem and how serous a problem t s thought to be For nstance, athough the homcde rate n the Unted States was hgher than n many other Western countres (a matter of great concern to Amercans at the end of the sxtes), the rate was lower than n many underdeveloped countres f we take a longer perspectve, volence has been rampant throughout Amercan hstory A report prepared for the Natonal Commsson on the Causes and Preventon of Volence, tself a response to recent alarm, noted that: The frst and most obvous concluson s that there has been a huge amount of t t s not merely that volence has been mxed wth the negatve features of our'hstory such as crmnal actvty, lynch mobs, and famly feuds On the contrary, volence has formed a seamless web wth some of the noblest and most constructve chapters of Amercan hstory: the brth of the naton t Revolutonary volence), the freeng of the slaves and the preservaton o the Unon (Cvl War volence), the occupaton of the land (ndan wars), the stablzaton of fronter socety (vglante volence), the elevaton of the farmer and the laborer (agraran and labor volence), and the preservaton of law and order (polce ~olence)~ The 1970's began wth wdespread debate over the moral concepts and authorty structures of the socety Part of the ctzenry and the leadershp felt t was a queston of law and order When a natonal sample of Amercans were gven a lst of ten domestc problems n a 1970 Gallup survey and asked whch three the government should concentrate on 56% of the reapondens chose "reducng the amount ofcrme" A smaller numberof Amercans vewed the unresponsveness of the socetal structure to the needs and demands of the mnortes, the young, and ultmately most Amercans as nvtng volent uprsngs and crme Socal thnkers and poltcal phlosophers tend to vew volence as a socal evl Even when t s argued that volence s "justfed," as when the o p pressed rse aganst ther volent oppressors we usually mean that we are wllng to accept the human sacrfce of an uprsng to prevent further ve lence, and n order to advance other values such as socal justce and freedom And we see the 'Tustfed" volence n tself as demeanng, to both ts vctms ' H D Graham and T D Gurr, eds, The Hstory of Volence n Amerca: A Report to the Natonal Commsson on tho Causes and Preuenton of Volence \New York: Bantam, 19691, p 75

4 712 Volence - and the cxccutoncrs To nlkl* a lum:n twnl: nn object of vtrlcnrc Jrut!!-,- not only hm but also thc volcnt actor Concentrnton cmnp gurd; h,n~ men,or totaltaran eltes are not free, happy pfople'only a wry few \vrtc*rs have depcted volent acts as ndcatng postve attrbutes such as vrlty or toughness, or beng therapeutc and releasng nhbt0nsj Most students of volence ask how t can be mnmzed and how other means of advancng one's goals can be followed nstead THE CONCEPTS OF VOLENCE - - Wthout enterng nto a lengthy exposton of conceptual dfferences and defntons, two dstnctons n the concept of volence ought to be noted because the terms used techncally here dffer sgnfcantly from some common usages Frst, we are dealng n ths paper wth physcal volence, not wth economc or psychc coercon Some people argue that there s no dfference Setween forcng a person to take a lne he does not wsh to by pontng a gun at hm, by threatenng the loss of hs job, or by manpulatng hs symbols such as those nvolved n excommuncaton Ths vew s especally argued by those who justfy ther acts of physcal volence by the economc and psychc coercon of others Socal scentsts must note the drerence: Whle economc and psychc pressures can be very powerful ndeed, except n lmted condtons they leave the ultmate decson to the subject - the pressures reduce but do not elmnate hs freedom When physcal force s used, ho;;- ever-when a person s jaled, gagged, or shot-under most condtons he has no choce left n the matter Ths dfference may account for a corollary one Most people fnd physcal volence more alenatng than economc or psychc pressures; they would rather be scolded or have ther pay reduced than be beaten6 Hence, t does matter to those subject to pressure whch means of socal control are em- 'Ths pont was eloquently made by Albert Camus, The Myth ofssypphcrs and Other Essays (New York: Vntage, 1955) 'See Ernst Noltc Three Faces offascsm (New York: Holt 1966on the masculne vew of volence Georges Sore1 attrbuted mystc rejuvenatng power to mas volcnw See hs Re/?eclons on Volence (m-don: Allcn nnd Unwn 1915, Frrnz FLtncn 51% t n a pcrsonal therapeutc potentnl: see hs The Wrcrchcd of thc Ear:h ~'L*w YvrL Grove, 1965) For some evdcncc sce Amta Etzon A Compmttu Annl>rr vfc*md<a (1- ganzatonr th'cw York: Frw Prw 1961)

5 Amta Etzon 7 13 played, and t s not useful to cloud the ssue semantcally by referrng to all acts of cocrcon as volence Second, volencc and aggresson are not to be confused Volence s an act that causes damage, often to person, sometmes only to propwty ;\ggresson refers to the entre range of assertve, ntrusve, and attackng behavors Aggresson thus ncludes both overt and covert attacks, such defamatory acts as sarcasm, self-drected attacks, and domnance behavor Aggresson may lead to volence, but t may also fnd an outlet n busness competton, a lawyer s powerful bref, and sports-all legtmate modes of conduct Those who seek peace do not want a world, a socety or even a famly free of aggressve feelngs or conflcts-whch may well be mpossble and even undesrable Peace does not mean the tranqulty of nacton: t requres the advancement of one s postons and the soluton or curbng of conflct by nonvolent means Actually, developng and mantanng a nonvolent system may well requre provdng sufcent room for legtmate forms of conflct, the way keepng a bcycle uprght requres pushng the pedals Standng stll, passvty, s not a prerequste of a nonvolent world - % - 2 1?!! THE FORMS OF VOLENCE Volence takes many forms: the assassnaton of presdents: the murder of mafos; rots n whch cty blocks are burned down and shops looted; bombs planted n mal boxes, polce headquarters, department stores; lynchng of -- blacks by whtes; polce or Natonal Guardsmen usngexcessvc force n ther legal capacty, or runnng beserk; war genocde For the socal scentst, behnd ths plethora of concrete forms are a few analytc dmensons that allow an order to emerge from ths chaos volence may be defned accordng to the knd of actor nvolved whether ndvduals, small groups, or collectvtes, such as classes or regons; how organzed t s, whether spontaneous or planned; ts legtmacy, whether s authorzed by the socety s nsttutons and sanctoned by ts values or s condemned for seekng to evade these controls and values or whether t s revolutonary, seekng to redefne socety, n whch case the use of volence may be consdered legtmate These dstnctons express a general concern wth consequences rather than wth motves Thus ndvdual or small group devant volence does not Marshall F Glula and Davd N Danels, Volence and Man s Struggle to Adapt, Scence, No 164 (Aprl , p 396 0

6 - 714 Volence tend to have socetal consrqurncca untw rsw la wry hgh!cw~ (nr, hystercally pcrcevcd whle volcncc by cdlwtvtc*s weknk to r-da/rl, the socety tends to alter hstory ns cvl wrs and revolutons ndcate *rhc form of volence, though does not dctcrmnc the conscquences Thcsc are more affected by the sources of volence and the ways they are faced SOURCES OF VOLENCE: ALTERNATE THEORES AND THER POLCY MPLCATONS But why s there volence of any knd, personal or collectve? What does an analyss of the sources of volence tell us about the opportuntes to reduce or elmnate t? There are competng answers, or at least theores, attemptng to expan why man s volent They are mportant for understandng the volence around and before us and for suggestng dfferent polces to pursue tvolence s to be curbed Volence, say varous schools of thought, s the red: oman s bologcal nature, of normal psychc predspostons; the result of successfully learnng volent norms; or s caused by the socal structure tsef Each of these vews deserves attenton not only because they are stll stbscrbed to but also because each contans an element out of whch a full theory of volence may evolve Human Nature: The Bologcal Schools -? # One major vew of volence sees ts sources n man s bologcal, anmal, or nstnctual foundaton Socal phlosophers, especally Hobbes held man?q be volent n hs orgnal state of nature, acqurng the means to solve conflcts peacefully only through consderable ekort devoted to developng and mantanng cvlzaton s constrants The anmal base, nevertheless, s constantly lurkng n the background, threatenng to break through n volent scts Snce man, n ths vew, s naturally volent, what requres cxplnnaton s not hs volence but the condtons under whch cvl conduct (whch some call a socal veneer, to stress ts fraglty), arses and s sustaned Many theoretcal works n psychology are based on a varant ot ths assumpton: Man s born an anmal, s nclned to serve hs own needs, and s capable of volent conduct Through thc processes of cducaton lor sncnlrrnton) he acqures a measure of self-regulaton and an cmotonl nmrntmc-nt,

7 - &*a- Amta Etzon 71 5 :! to lmt hrnsclf n conflcts wth hs fdlow man to nonvolcnt rnc:ts tfc also )corns to plrsuc shared and conplemcntary goals and not only hs mmedate se)f- ntcrest The more salent thcsc shared or complementary goal, the lcss lkely they are to comc nto conflct, and conflcts that do occur are h*ss lkely to ntcnsfy to thc pont where men wll fght Ctzens of one naton more ohn than not tend to sharc goals; ctzens of dfferent natons rarely do Ths s one reason natons fght each other more often than do groups wthn a naton Reccnt works n psychoogy stress that socalzaton s not suffcent even when successfully completed Peoplc must be contnuously rewarded for ther cvlzed conduct or punshed for breakng the rules and usng volence llegtmately Moreover, even the combnaton of socalzaton and socal control does not assure full adherence to the nonvolent procedures the socety fosters Not all socal phlosophers or scentsts share ths vew of man Some, ncludng Locke, saw the state of nature as peaceful, n whch mcn had perfect freedom to order ther actons and dsposeofther possessons and persons as they thnk ft, wthn the bounds of ths law ofnature,wthout askn, [r eave, or dependng upon the wll of any other men Ths state of peacc s undermned when a small mnorty of dsruptve, rapacous men seeks to volate the rghts of others and forces the majorty to defend tself From thcn on, conflct s endemc to socety Recently students of anmal socctcs repon that such socetes are more peaceful than human socetes and that ntraspeces volence among anmals s rare9 Volent ntraspeces fghts occur chefly when one s turf (or domcle) s nvaded or a terrtory becomes overcrowded Anmals prey on each other, but predaton should not come wthn the scope of aggressve actvty a hawk swoopng on a small brd s no more aggressve than the famly butcher engaged n hs lvelhood o Otherwse, aggrcsson among annals s rare and tends to be playful (as among dogs) or rtualstc (as among cocks), but fghtng to the death very rarely occurs n vertebrates, and t s doubtful whether t ever occurs n rnsmmals under natural condtons Because of the rapd development of hs bran and weapons man s sad to have lost the natural nhbtons aganst fratrcde and genocde that even carnvorous anmns have Nkolaas Tnbergen sees the essence of the socal lfe of anmals as cooperaton among members of a speces Matng, rearng orsprng, assocrton John Locke, OjCuf Couernment (Condon: Cassell and Co, La, 1901) Chapter 2, Secton 4 John D Carthy and F J Eblng, eds, The ~afuralhstoryofaggressorr(london: Academc 19641, p 2 * bd p 2 bd See also J P Scott, Anmal Behooor (New York Anchor, 1963)

8 716 Volence ' L: much the same 3s that of actual fghtng; t tends to space ndvduals out because they tnutually repel each other" *' Ths reproductve fghlng nsures each member of the speces the "possesson of some object, or a terntory, whch s ndspensable for reproducton t thus prevents ndvduals sharng such objects whch would n many cases be dsastrous, or at least neffcent"" And "stmul from the terrtory to whch the anmal reacts ether nnately or as an added result of condtonng, makes the anmal confne ts fghtng to the As men cannot return to ther anmal nature, reducng volence depends on provdng alternatve nondestructve outlets for man's aggresson Spcakng of war, A Storr calls for playng off aggresson n alternatve spheres: 'There wll always be plenty of ways n whch countres can compete, whether t be n the space race, n educaton, n technology, or eve3 n welfare We ought to encourage competton n these felds as much as we possbly can" C Frustraton-AggressonTheory We have dscussed theores that fnd the root of volence n man's nature n hs bologcal substructure, and n hs psychc superstructure A secord set of theores sees the source of volence n a person's relatonshp to hs socal envronment; the most popular of these s known as the "frustraton-aqgresson theory" t states that aggressve behavor [of whch volent conduct s a major form) results when purposeful actvty s nterrupted The classcal proponents of ths theory often cte an example of a boy beng : 2:, * Nkolaas Tnbergen, Socal Behauor n Anmals (London: Methuen, 1953) p 21 * bd, p 58 l'lbd, p 62 "bd, p 64 "A Storr "Possble substtutes for war" n John D Carthy and F J Eblng &, The Natural Hstory ofaggresson (New York: Academc, 19611, p 144 Smlar suggestoru have been made by Konrad Lorenz On Aggresson (New York: Bntnrn 1966) *

9 -! : '! Amta Etzon &vented by hs mother from gettng an ce cream cone after the ce cream vendor's bell has been heard and the boy s on hs way to buy t" The - frustraton-aggresson theory s frequently crtczed for not explanng under whch crcumstances frustraton leads to aggresson ant1 under whch t docs not: Some chldren rcgrcss rnthcr than aggress; for rsnplc when toys arc taken from them they wet ther pants rather tnn att:c!c othcrclldren The theory does not dfferentate between aggresson that s volent and aggresson that s not (whch may take the form ofpersonal n~ull ratherthnn physcal assault) And, t has been ponted out, aggresson m;ly be evoked other than by frustrator, for example, by boredom or by dsruptng physw logcal rather than purposeful actvtes, such as sleep Stll, a consdcrablc body of: data n support of the theory tas evolved Studes do show whch factors affect aggressve responses'" For example aggresson s more lkely to occur f frustraton s arbtrary rather than explanable: A commuter s less lkely to react aggressvely f a bus passng hm by dsplays a clear sgn that t has hroken down and s on ts way to the garage Prevous exposures are also a factor; studes show that durng World War 1 people nearly mssed by a bomb reacted more sevvrely to a new bombng than those wthout such prevous experence n an experment measurng the effect of dfferng degrees of frustraton, a fve-month-old baby was deprved of hs bottle at varyng lengths of tme after he had started feedng When the length of tme before he started crvng was mcasured, t was found that the less mlk the chld had consumed dore he was nterrupted, the qucker he responded by cryng'" Thus the nore frustrated (or less satated) the chld was, the greater the motvaton for an aggressve -- response n a study nvestgatng the dfferental effect of experencnc a seres of frustratons rather than a sngle one, several pars of colleqc students exchanged wrtten notes on two occasons arranged by the cspcrmrntcrs ''hc notes prepared by the students were ntercepted and replaced wth notes ether frendly or hostle n tone After two sessons, each student WDS asked to descrbe hs partner, and these descrptons were scored accordng to the 'degree of hostlty expressed Students who receved two unfrcndly notes were found to be sgnfcantly more hostle n descrbng ther partners than students who receved only a sngle unfrendly note- ndcatng that "The classcal book s John Dollard Leonard W Dmb Neal E SlLlcr, 0 H Mowrer and Rohcrt R Sears, Frustraton and Aggresson (New Ha\-en: Yale Unversty Press, 1939) "For an overvew see Leonard Berkowtz, Aggresson: A Socal Psychologcal Amlyss (New York: hlcgraw-hll 1962) "The studes report almost exclusvely on work wth chldren or students

10 *!S, j The mplcatons of ths concepton ~o far wyond the r;~rcflly (ll+~;::l,,l experments Ths theory s often cted to suggcst that f pcoplrs ;>pr:t :s are kept from outpacng the opportuntes avalable to them vofcncc ~ be less common than n our own frustratng world, where everyone s encouraged to strve for economc and socal success but the avenues are not equally avalable to The Learnng Theores! Whle the frustraton-aggresson theory sees volence as the result of socal : - - and psychc falure - dsrupton of purposeful actvty, the abscncc of expected rewards, and nadequate maturty and development of safe outlets -learnng theory vews voence as the result of successful socalzaton and socal control Aggressve behavor n general, and volent behavor n partcular, s learned just lke other behavor, and can be trggered \vhcre expected, even wthout frustraton Mddle-class people, cspccnl ly nte!- lectuals, t s sad, tend to vew bloodshed wth horror, but n other sub- cultures some forms of volence are consdered normal or acqure a postve evaluaton n the fronter socety, a fast gun was a source of pre- atqc The lower classes often assocate usng force (eg, n a fst fght) wth masculnty And the same educated people who abhor volence n abstracton frequently approve of usng t for one s noton or for some other just cause Thus under condtons n whch volence s expected-solders at the front, teen-agers n a street gang- members of the subculture may learn to conform to the norms and bchave volcntly because such conduct s prcscnted to them as socally desrable They may feel volence s the thng to do, because they have been brought up rght, and they know they wll wn approval f they fght well and receve censure f they chcken out What one learns s largely defned by one s culture and subculture Hence one common explanaton for why Amercans are more volent than Europeans s that Amercan culture s more approvng of volence than most other Western cultures Swedsh moves set practcally no lmts on the sexual behavor flmed, but they censor volence; Amercan moves used to be, and to some degree stll are, sexually rhbted, but they are not volence-shy loamta Etzon, Makng Rob Mandatory, Psychatry and Socal Scence RruuwVol 2 No 5 (May, 1968) pp 2-7

11 sol only tlws volcncc ;ppcar- n wrstct'ns ;nd war movv; -n gory dctal, but t tends tu be romantczed-the war hero gets thc Lrl, the war makes a nan out of a tnd boy and so on Our frontcr espcrences and the mxng of mmgrants from wdely vared backgrounds sharng few "ultmate" values or bonds, are beleved to have shaped Amercan culture n ths regard : The Amercan character was forged through an extraordnary 300- year process of settlement durng whch the ndans were drvrn back, the Englsh, Spansh, and French were drven off the Afrcans were nvoluntarly drven over, the Mexcans nvoluntarly anncscd and the mmgrant mnortes were thrust rrevocably nto a vbrant competton both wth a raw physcal envronment and wth one another That Amercans often resorted to volence under such tryn: crcumstances s no surprse But more mportant today s the queston of the pervasveness of the legacy of natvsm, velantsm, and ethnc aggresson that was an nevtable byproduct of the nteracton of rnmgrant and open contncnt,2c c Very recently, efforts have been made to dsarm Amercan culture Televson networks have begun to lmt volence, especally n chldren's programs Mothers demonstrated aganst war toys By and large lttle was changed; the culture of a free socety s not gven to ready gudance The proft from "volent" moves or toys s consderable, and the denand for ether tem does not seem to suhsde Socal scentsts dsagree consderably on the effect of volent-cultural tems Research conducted by R H Waters and hs assocates from 1962 to 1966 seems to ndcate that vewng flmed volence stmulntcs nk:gressve behavor College students were chosen as subjects; they were nstructed to act as "teachers" n a learnng experment n whch they punshed the "learner" for hs mstakes After vewng a knfe fghtng scene from a flm, the test subjects "showed a sgnfcant ncrease n the level of shock delvered to the learner when errors were made"" The authors concludc that: The pattern of data s consstent wth the nterpretaton that flmed volence stmulated agpxsve motvatons or aggressve rcsporse tendences and that ths aroused aggressveness was manfested n permssve aggresson aganst another person::' ~ * H D Graham and T D Gurr, eds The Hstory of Volence n Amercn: A Report to the Nafonal Conmsson on the Causes and Premfon of Volrnrr p 102 Walter Wess, "EtTects of the brass Bcda of Communcaton," n Gardncr Lndzey and Ellot Aronson, The Handhook of Socal Psychology 2nd ed Vol 5 (Readng Mass: Addson-Wesley 19691, p 133 Zbd - #

12 Volence The work of 0 1 1~va:ts *,-w\s du) to cttrrtcmr,t, t;, b,*:t, n +:lr!,,, latng cflw of vcwrg llrrtd :cgre*-tm J %-rr* ad ~lp, rltt!,! x:, school chldren vcw-d crtmmg ;vtl a v r hgh ~ nmtt-nt of \ dtrbtta (t,: chldren s observed agpwsvr twtrwor wrms to h;w tnvn lfnul;rrd,? the aggressve cnrtcxms2 111 cortr ;st othrr stdcbs of tlc cfl;cts of ncc;l that convey volence!eg televson comc books) upon chldren frcqurrt y report the absence of a causal relatonshp between the ntnount of esposure to the meda and antsocal behavor One study of 263 New York Cty boys of average ntellgence compared the behavor of the 25 boys most nterested n comc books wth the behavor of the 25 boys least nterested n comc books When the twogroups were compared wth regard to school attendance school achevement, conduct, and tendences toward dcnquency no scnfcant dfferences were found2s Another study of 626 ffth- and sxth-grade chldren n a Boston suburb nvestgated the relatonshp between ther nterpersonal behaor and ther choce of aggressve or nonaggressve materal n televson, moves and comc hooks Whle hoys who tended to haw unusual problems wth nterpersonal relatons and also were hghly exposed to pctoral meda had a partcular preference for aggressve meda content, t was suggested that nterpersonal problems were more nearly a cause than a consequence of the boys concern wth volent meda cor,tent:* An aggressve move may release aggressve motvatons rather than encourage hostle actons or volent behavor t was found that preerposure psychologcn characterstcs, such as a hgh number of nterpersonal problems, affect the chld s use of the mass meda; they dfferentate the content he prefers and how he perceves t and they determne how ths content nfluences hm A boy wth problems, extrapuntve leanngs, and rebellouslv ndependent tendences who manly as a result of hs socal envronment and hs Q, s hghly exposed, relcs on the meda for temporary solutons to dfcultes; structures the content of the meda n blnck-andwhte terms around elements of aggresson, threat, amoral vews of crme and negatve atttudes to exstng law enforcement nsttutons: and draws on ths structure n hs judgments of people and n a projecton orhs own self-mage - -, -- *4 bd, p 134 * lcrbert S Lcwn, Facts and Fears about the Comcs, Nafons Schools Vol 52 pp n Joseph T Klapper The Erects of Mass Communcatons [New York: Free Press 19601, p 151 Walter Wess, Effects of the Mass Meda of Communcaton, n Gnrdncr Lndzey and Ellot Aronson, The Handbook of Socal Psychology 2nd ed Vol * Loth Ralyn, Was Mcdn and Chldren: A Study of Exposurr Habts snd Cogntve EKects Psychologcal Monographs Vol 73 No (1959) p 36

13 1 Amta Etzon t 1, (!! - me Commssdn on the Causes and Preventon of Volence took a dffmcnt poston, referrng to expermental studes showng that chldren exposed to flmed or telcvscd volence may respond by mtatng the aggressve behavor n one study, nursery school chldren wntchcd n f:m showng an adult strkng an nflatable knock-down doll: latcr tlc~se chldren and others who had not seen the flm were subjected to delbertc frustraton and placed n a room wth a knock-down doll and other toys Chldren who had seen the flm dsplayed sgnfcantly more hostlty toward the doll than dd the other chldren; n another study, one group of nursery school chldren saw a cartoon featurng aggressve acton and a second group saw a cartoon contanng relatvely peaceful actvty Chldren from both groups 1v cw then permtted to play wth two mechancal toys Both were actvated by a bar whch, when pressed, n one toy caused a doll to strke another, and n the other toy led to more peaceful actvty Whle both groups made the same total numlwr of rcspotscs to the toys the chtlcn who had sccn tlc volent cartoon used the aggressve toy sgnfcantly more frequently than the chldren who had seen the nonvolent Possbly the ssue s the dfference between cultural tens and contexts f a war s reported n the news each day, and snce kllngs occur often n the streets, and much volence s depcted n moves, novels, hstory books and toys, removng a few such tems wll have lttle general ckwt and hence wll not show n studes Changng the whole context however dsarmng the culture, mght well make a dfference Whle t s extrenely dfcult to dsarm a culture, t mght at least be possble to enrch t wth strong nntdotes-such ;S are now beng provded aganst smokng- untl slowly the volence-predsposng tems are rendered less posonous The most mpor- tant factor s probably not how much volence we see, but rather the frnmework n whch t s reported and vewcd- whether horrble or nol~lc, a measure of last resort, or a shortcut to fame and fortune Here s where edtng and educaton may be comparatvely useful A Bandura, D Ross, and S Ross Transmsson of Aggresson ThrouKh nta!on of Aggressve hlodcls Journal of Abnormal and Swol Pswhorwr Vol 63 (19611, pp n hnard Berkowtz Aggrcsson: A Socaf Psycho!cgcnl,*ltrulyss p 236 vnr Lovaos, Effect of Exposure to Symbolc Aggresson on Aggrrssve Behavor, Chld Dcueopmont 32, pp 37-44, n Leonard Berkowtz, Aggresson: A Socal Psychologcal Analyss p 236 *

14 722 Volence - TOWARD AN NTEGRATED THEORY OF VOLENCE The three sourccs of volencc we have dcntfed nay well appcnr jotly makng t dffcult to tell whch source s at work When a crmnal shoots a storekeeper, he s surely bologcally capable of volence: he may also t)e frustrated- pcrhnps he has just lost hs job- and may have learned that t s all rght to behave that way Analytcally however, these theores arc not compatble, and the polcy-mplcatons are not dentcal Nor do the theores have the same explanatory power Analoges to anmal socetes are of lmted value, snce man and hs socety dffer n so many ways from anmal socetes, and each drcrence affects the ssue at hand blenbers of human socetes respond to rch and complex sets of symbols (culture) whch may serve to curb, or to gcncratc, a level of volence very dfferent from the one man s hologcnlly c:pnble ~f: n contrast, the role of symbols n most anmal socetcs s extremely lmted A genetcally set dvson of labor and reflexes are the marks of anmal nature; man s not governed by these Some say that we would be btttcr off, less volent f we were more bound by our rellexes, but &-e are not and cannot be so reconsttuted Even f humans, who are often provoked to armed conflct by consderatons of status and deology, followed the examples of anmals and fought only when ther terrtores are threatened or ther physcal exstence endangered the level of warfare would stll be hgh, as n Europe when the Nazs fought for febensraum lterally space to tve ) Socal scentsts have been sayng for years that man can fnd d!terent outlets for hs aggressve tecdences- the aggressve ndvdual may become a lawyer, butcher, polceman, or crmnal But t s not clear why some people become one or the other, and even less clear to what extent wc can redrect the factors that so assgn people wthout radcal transrormnton of the whole socety Human, malleablty may be smaller than had been expected Aggressve chldren n kndergartens are gven a doll to ht as a substtute outlet when they want to ht other chldren But when a threeyear-old n a nursery school says: want to ht somethng whch makes Ooh, he s sayng, n efrect, that substtutes have dffcrcnt attrbutes, are not so attractve, and hence do not replace the need for volent, antsocal behavor Both frustraton and learnng seem mportant factors n volent behavor But these are not to be vewed as narrow personalty conccpts determned merely by an ndvdual s ablty to learn, hs maturty or hs prcvous

15 :! : 1! 1!!,!!! : _ Amta Etxon 723 exp&cncc These factors arc sgnfcantly affected by soccbl forces and =ctal forces work drectly on the aspratons a person has and the actual opportuntes avalable to hm Ther balance versus dscl-rpncy s one sgnfcant factor determnng the level of volence n a socety f aspratons are escalated -by the moves, televson, advertsng, and rtotlcrn secular educaton- whle new jobs, ncome, and housng ncrease more slowly, volence wll rse From a theoretcal vewpont, the socetal aspccts of learnng and frustratons allow us to te n these two dstnct theores, and place the study of volence n a general framework that ncludes other devant and nnovatve behavor: The pont s that culture offers both the goals members of socety aspre to (eg, materal success) and the means they are expected to use n reachng these goals (eg, hard work, savng) When the legtmate means are not avalable and the goals are accepted, some members of socety are frustrated and under pressure to resort to llegtmate means-of whch volencc, as appled by the crnnal, s a major example Learnng becomes a chef factor, once a devant, volence-approvng subculture has been establshed but learnng does not explan how and why such a culture came about An ndvdual may well be volent because he grew up n a fronter or gangster conrnunty where volence was an approved mode of conduct, and he was successfully socalzed nto t But collectves such as classcs or races do not pck up at random volent cultural patterns, whch ace then learned by ther ndvdual members By and large the more volent cultures seem to be those that are located n relatvely deprved areas, such as sotthern Unted States and southern taly n the Unted States volence as part of 1fe sfems more acceptable n the Smth than n most other parts of the country, more conmon n the ctes than n the suburbs and n the poorer areas of the ctes than n the rcher ones The concepts of learnng and frustraton, especally f enlnrzcd to nclude socologcal concepts such as the content of culture and subculture, and the structure of aspratons and opportuntes, are helpful n understandng the factors that determne the forms and level of volence n searchng for a more comprehensve theory of volence, a process far from complete we turn next to socefaf sources, whch affect the level and modes of volrnce drectly as well as the motvatonal and cogntve processes just explored On ths framcwork see Robert K Merton Socal Theory and Sorrrf Structure enl ed (New York: Free Press, 1968) Chapters 6-7; Rchard A Clow;trd and Lloyd E Ohln, Defnqucncy and Opportunty (New York: Free Press, 1960); \lnrshall B Clnard ed Anome and Devant Behavor: A Dscusson and a Crtque (New York: Free Press 964)

16 - :, -_, : 724 Volcrcc * Thc snklr most sk:rfc;nt ;s,:ht s to p;raplr:sc : lrnora s:ynk that vchrl--c s tt* cmt nu:1t 11f ~ mal soccta processes 11v of hcr nr:ns To llustrate, twrkcrr; ;L~ Cur : cu~~~~~ ~~utw?; ll vtt,t,t (, n1,r-,;;vl grevances (a sgn of socal tcnson) and go on strke (by tself, n cgt:?ttc, nonvolent form of conflct), whch may turn nto a volent confrontaton f demands are contnually gnored or attempts are made to suppress the overt expresson of the conflct (by use of polce or strke breakers) Only f wc understand the forces that cause tensons and conflcts n socety wll we ultmately be able to account for the level of volence Whle these forces may be nonvolent, f they are gnored and not responded to, they wll, under certan condtons, turn volent t s dffcult to account fully for the level of tenson and conflct n socety and the condtons under whch t escalates nto volence, wthout gong nto consderable detal? Three central concepts, though can be brefly ntroduced and ther relatonshps to volence explored These are socetal bonds (or systems ), whch refer to the extent to whch a socety s gfred together or ntegratcd; socetal structures, whch ndcate the shnpes or patterns of the relatonshps among those bound together nto one soce:al groupng (eg, s there one subgroup whch subjugates the others or s there a more egaltaran dstrbuton of opportuntes?): and socetal processes, whch are the mechansms through whch both socetal bonds and socetal structure can be changed The processes may be effectve and make structure and bonds responsve to the membershps, or neffectve and allow for great or growng dscrepances between the desres of the members and what the socety provdes for them Major socologcal conceptualzatons of the socetal sources of volence le n these three concepts Socetal Bonds (or Systems): The Extent of Socetal ntegraton The ntrcate webs of socal bonds that te ndvduals and groups to each other are of three major knds: One s the values the members share, whch they acqure at home, n school, from peers, and n church For nstance, they may share a belef n the Amercan way of lfe or n ndvdualsm Shared belefs allow groups wth conflctng nterests and vewponts to work A theory on whch we draw here s prcsrntcd n dctnl n Amta Etzon Thr Actve Socety: A Theory of Socefal and Poltcal Processes (Sew Ywk: Frw Pn- 1968)

17 Amta Etzon 725!! them out and hence to curb conflct, lmtng t to nonvolent rncans t s as f each partcpant says to hmsclf, Wcll don t really lkc ths ( ths beng whatever the conflct s all about), but there s somethng tore mportant 1 and ny adversary share; hence let me gve n, at least part of the way, to keep the shared enterprse alve When basc values are not shared by members of a socety, as, for nstance, among the trbes of sonc newborn natons such as Ngera or n the Unted States before the Cvl War, ntergroup volence s more lkely Ths volence may take the form of trbal warfare, cvl war urban rot, or, most commonly, nternatonal war The second major socetal bond s the economc exchanges that bnd pc+ ple and groups to each other not out of commtment to the same values but out of necessty They trade wth each other or use each other s facltes (eg, ports) or own jont facltes (eg, nterstate ralroads) The more exchanges occur, the more people or groups are bound to each other and the less lkely are they to come nto volent conflct A thrd bond, frequently not recognzed as such, s the ablty of an authorty to speak for the unt (whateverant s encompassed by the bonds) t~ keep the subunts n lne (e to contnue wthn the system and not to threaten t) by dsarmng them, or at least by keepng ther capacty to fght at clearly lower levels t s somethng lke a school yard: One reason the fourth graders do not fght each other, at least not much s that some eghth graders (or teachers) are apponted to see that they do not bot!^ the superor power and the legtmacy of the law and order force are relevant: f the peace-keepng force s weak, t wll nvte a revoluton; f t s tself unjust, not duly apponted, or dscrmnatory n ts enforcement of nonvolence t wll encourage the subjects to seek means to rebel n the process of natonbuldng, n whch socetal bonds are ntensfed, often the rglt lo hear arms s shfted from ndvduals and local groups to R natonal authorty such as the polce or the army A bref look at the development of socetal bonds n the Unted States s useful Havng grown out of colones that were farly scparnte enttcs, the Unted States only slowly evolved natonwde ntegratve forccs of all three knds, and ths largely after the Cvl War Even todxy no natonwde schml system teaches all chldren the same cvcs or otherwse ntroduces t tcn to the same set of ultmate values, as n France or srael Even today segments of the country, especally the poorest ones, are left out of nany of the economc exchanges Even today the Unted States unlke most Western countres, has no natonwde polce force These factors are a major reason the Unted States s more volent than most Western natons They also help explan why n many underdeveloped natons, much less ntegrated than the Unted States, ntergroup volence s consderably hgher

18 _, - --wrc 726 Volence L * * - 1 -?: 1-- The thrw knds of tnrrds :re* w*tkt+-t ntutmj: r;tth~ :arll!:,r;cc,,r:l~ whch arse nrnony ttww vnttvs ;re oht kcly tct turn to VCJC:C~- tl!:~~ once t erupts s nwst dflcult to curb f one tlrks :h~ut: n:ton tfvd~c - by a cvl war or nrkc-scnle nlc~jrop volence ;dong r;lc: or clns 1ncs for example, as two or nore natons not dctply bound togcthcr, we scc how the same concepton of bonds apples both to ntra- and nternatonal conflcts So far, we have asked a statc queston: What bonds te men togerler? Dynamcally, we ask next: Under what condtons may groups heretofore not suffcently ted to make a communty that tales out large-scale ntergroup volence come to fashon-such bonds? We shall llustrate our answer by examples from stuatons n whch bonds are weakest, among natons, but the same pont+ apply to ntra-natonal systems SYSTEM-B ULDNC: AN NTERNATONAL EX AMPLE -Encapsulaton, not conflct resoluton: Bonds provde a capsule that contans conflcts and prevents them from turnng nto volence Encapsulaton refers to the process by whch conflcts are modfed so that they become lmted by rules the c3p sule ) The rules exclude some earler modes of conflct, whle they legtmate other modes Encapsulated conflcts are not solved n the sense that the partes necessarly become pacfed But the use of arms, or at least some * usage of some arms, s effectvely ruled out Where some observers may see only two alternatves-powers are bascally ether hostle or frendly -encapsulaton ponts to a thrd knd of relatonshp Here, some dfferences of belef or nterests; even a mutually aggressve orentaton, mght well contnue But states agree to rule out some means and some modes of conflct, that s, armed ones, and set up the machnery necessary to enforce ths LT~ Treement Encapsulaton s thus less demandng than pacfcaton, snce t docs not requre that the conflct be resolved or extngushed, only that the range of ts expresson be curbed Propellrg forces, the lmts of communcaton: How may bonds be bult up to curb ntcrgroup volence? Robert Ezra Park ponts out that conflct generates nteracton between ts partes (eg, races); the partes come to know each other and communcate wth each other, whch n turn lends to the evoluton of shared perspectves and relatons, untl the conflct turns nto competton (Park and many other socologsts use the term compctton to refer to a conflct lmted by a set of rules) J2 Danel Lerner reports that,french busnessmen who travel, read foregn magaznes, and meet foregn vstors are more lkely to favor the formaton of a European com- Robert E Pnrk Human Communtes (New York: Free Press 1952)

19 Amta Etzon 727 _ -'!,! munty than those less exposed to foregners Among busnessmen wth much exposurc, sentment n favor of such B communty s about sx to one whle those who have had lttle contact wth foregners favor thc communty only by a rato of two to one The dfference between these two groups mght be related to factors other than exposure, but Lcrner shows that varables such as age, brthplace, socoeconomc status, sze of frm, and locaton of frm do not explan the dfference51 The theorem that ncreased communcaton between partes s the mechansm through whch conflcts are encapsulated, and volence thus reduced, seems to hold more for partes wth smlar values and sentments to begn wth Communcaton may make the partcpants aware of a latent consensus upon whch they may draw to buld agreed-upon procedures to further lmt contlcts and to legtmate accommodaton But whcn the basc values, sentments, and nterests of the partes are not compatble, ncreased communcaton may only str ths ncompatblty nto conflct make the partes more conscous of the deep cfeavages that separate them, and ncrease the lkelhood of volence The larger the dfferences bcttveen the partes to a conflct, the smaller the degree of encapsulaton that can be attaned through ncreased communcaton The e/]ect of pourer constcllatnns: To encapsulate conflcts betwcen hostle partes who lack shared values, the number of members n the system and the dstrbuton of power among them secms to be more mportant for the system's ntegraton than communcaton The balance-of-power system seems to requre at least four or fve partcpants" Systems wth three partcpants tend to lead to coaltons, n whch two gang up aganst the thra'j Bpolar systems (Le, wth two partcpants) have been shown to be partcularly dmcult to pacfy Encapsulaton seems to be enhanced by the transton from a relatvely duopolstc (two party) system to a more pul-;stcone nternatonal relatons approxmated a state of duopoly between and 1956 n ths perod, the heght of the Cold War, there were two farly monolthc camps one drected from Moscow the other from LVashngton A number of countres were not algned wth ether camp but ther mltary and poltcal weght was small Such a duopolstc stuaton was hghly urfavorable to encapsulaton The sdes focused ther attenton on keepng ther respectve blocs ntegrated and tryng to keep nonalgned countres from "Danel Lcrncr "French Busness Leaders Look at EDC: A Prelmnary Report," Publc Opnon Quarterly Vol 20 (195F) pp See Morton A Kaplan, System and Process n nternafonal Poltcs (New York: Wley, 1957) pp 27,34 ff =Ceorg Smrnel, Conflct (New York: Free Press 1955), -

20 728 Volence L- --, --? -- - ' swell,ng the ranks of thc oppwtv ctp Ech tt(< t?~:! rh #*!,,: t1+8;llr:b- f+$r an opportunty to csp:nc ts rrspvtvc ;twt of ntlvrcv \\!:/#-\V:L< ;*r the other's coll;~pw Bctwccn 1933 and 1964 secondary power rcbcllcd n cwh ol the VJ major camps Bot t France and Chna had bccn weak pwvrs forced LO f;j!ow a foregn polcy forulated n foregn captals Undcr rcavakenrg a:onalsm and augmented natonal power, both however, ncreasngly foowed an ndependcnt foregn polcy The rebellon of the secondary powers r: both camps pushed the two superpowers closer to each other Seekng to martnn ther superor status and fearng- the consequences of conflcts genwatcd by ther rebellng clent-states, the superpowers set out to formulate some rules bndng on all partes The treaty of the partal cessaton of nuclear tests whch the Unted States and the Sovet Unon tred to make 'hndn,- on France and Chna as well, was a case n pont Amercan-Russan efforts to stem prolferaton of nuclear weapons was another n ths perod Russa stopped whatever techncal ad t was gvng to Chnese nuclear research and development;lc' and the Unted States refused to help France develop ts nuclear force Amercan-Sovet negotatons to agree on nspecton 0:'ocornc plants, amed manly at nsurng the use of atomc research for nonrn nrv purposes n thrd countres, ponted n the same drecton 'The lrj63-196c detente, whch solated Communst Chna and France, and the Ge:eva dsarmament negotatons n the same years, n whch these two countres dd not partcpate, were further reflectons of ths trend These measures have n common the mportant characterstc that they serve the more 'harrow" necds of the superpowers whle they 3d~ance the "general welfare" of the world; they can therefore be presented as unversa values and mplemented through world nsttutons (e, extend the "cap sule") For nstance, the prme supcrpower motvaton for the 1963 test treaty mght well have been the desre of the Unted States and R~ - C-a :o reman the only two great nuclear powers, but t also ndrectly reduce5 the danger of nuclear war t was presented as f the prme motve v;erc o ndvance peace and dsarmament and reduce fallout to protect human hc-s:h t s a famlar strategy of poltcal nterest groups to work out solutons among themselves and then clothe them n the values of the communty at large ndrectly, these values affect the course of acton an nterest group chooses to follow from among avalable alternatves and they provde a common bass upon whch smlar or compatble nterests of dvergent powers can be harmonzed and the shared communty broadened G F Hudson, Rchard Lowenthsl, and Roderck MacFarquhar The SneSovet Dspute (New York Pracger, 1961)

21 a Amta Elon 729, -- P -!! Consensus formaton and ntcrrnedary bodes: Socopoltcal processes that reduce the dfferences of nterest and vewpont and buld tcs are conflct-reducng, volence-curbng processes, as well as communty-buldng processes Communtes, especally f they have a government requre conensus that necds to be developed To form an effectve consensus-formng structure, t s essental to dvde the processes nto several cvels of representaton Rather than attemptng to reach consensus among all partes n one general assembly, the partes are best dvded nto subgroup!: that are more homogeneous than the communty as a whole These subgroups work out a compromse and are represented as f they were a sngle unt on the next level of the structure n whch consensus s formed To be etfectve such dvsons may have to be repeated several tmes Regonal organzatons, communtes, and blocs mght serve as ntermedary bodes for the nternatonal communty t would, however, be a mstake to vew every regonal organzaton as a step toward a world communty Regonal organzatons that have only socally margnal rules, such as the European research organzaton on peaceful uses of nuclear energy (CERN), tend to have much less mpact than those that pool the wveregntes of several natons, as the European Economc Communty teec1 has begun to do Regona bodes ntended to counterval other regonal bodes, especally mltary allances such as NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organzaton, often retard rather than advance encapsulaton of conflct; they tend to reflect, on a large scale the features of natonalsm Regonal hodes amed at nternal mprovement, such as welfare communtes (a foundaton of the EEC) or development assxatons (eg, n Central Amerca) that stress rapd economc growth, are nore lkely to serve as ntermedary layers n the process of buldng a world communty Above all, only regonal bodes that allow the process of upxrd transfer of loyaltes are helpful n buldng a world communty Studes ofsocal structures as dfferent as the Amcrcan federal government and tle Southern Baptst Assocaton have shown that once a center of authorty s establshed, t tends to grow n the power, rghts, and command of loyaltes earler com- n the Amercan poltcal system the prmares and the natonal convcntons and to e degree postelecton nekotatons over partcpaton n the cabnet provde such n multlayer consensus-formaton structure Thus for nstance, the strt:zle over the presdental and vce-presdental canddate s also a struggle over what plcy the party s to face the elcctorate wth Once chosen, most segments of the party -lberal and conservatve-tend, a3 a rule, to support the canddates and the polcy n the ncgotatons on partcpaton n the cabnet the party that lost the electon s often gven mne ndrect representaton to enhance natonal support for what s a one-party admnetraton