Argues that violent confrontation goes against human physiological hardwiring. This book challenges standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future. It guides readers into the disturbing world of human discord - from domestic abuse and schoolyard bullying to muggings, and armed conflicts.

List of Illustrations and Tables ix Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1: The Micro-sociology of Violent Confrontations 1 Violent Situations 1 Micro-evidence: Situational Recordings, Reconstructions, and Observations 3 Comparing Situations across Types of Violence 8 Fight Myths 10 Violent Situations Are Shaped by an Emotional Field of Tension and Fear 19 Alternative Theoretical Approaches 20 Historical Evolution of Social Techniques for Controlling Confrontational Tension 25 Sources 29 Preview 32 The Complementarity of Micro and Macro Theories 34 PART ONE: The Dirty Secrets of Violence 37 Chapter 2: Confrontational Tension and Incompetent Violence 39 Brave, Competent and Evenly Matched? 39 The Central Reality: Confrontational Tension 41 Tension/Fear and Non-performance in Military Combat 43 Low Fighting Competence 57 Friendly Fire and Bystander Hits 59 Joy of Combat: Under What Conditions? 66 The Continuum of Tension/Fear and Combat Performance 68 Confrontational Tension in Policing and Non-Military Fighting 70 Fear of What? 73 Chapter 3: Forward Panic 83 Confrontational Tension and Release: Hot Rush, Piling On, Overkill 89 Atrocities of War 94 Caveat: The Multiple Causation of Atrocities 99 Asymmetrical Entrainment of Forward Panic and Paralyzed Victims 102 Forward Panics and One-Sided Casualties in Decisive Battles 104 Atrocities of Peace 112 Crowd Violence 115 Demonstrators and Crowd-Control Forces 121 The Crowd Multiplier 128 Alternatives to Forward Panic 132 Chapter 4: Attacking the Weak: I. Domestic Abuse 134 The Emotional Definition of the Situation 134 Background and Foreground Explanations 135 Abusing the Exceptionally Weak: Time-patterns from Normalcy to Atrocity 137 Three Pathways: Normal Limited Conflict, Severe Forward Panic, and Terroristic Torture Regime 141 Negotiating Interactional Techniques of Violence and Victimhood 148 Chapter 5: Attacking the Weak: II. Bullying, Mugging, and Holdups 156 The Continuum of Total Institutions 165 Muggings and Holdups 174 Battening on Interactional Weakness 186 PART TWO: Cleaned-up and Staged Violence 191 Chapter 6: Staging Fair Fights 193 Hero versus Hero 194 Audience Supports and Limits on Violence 198 Fighting Schools and Fighting Manners 207 Displaying Risk and Manipulating Danger in Sword and Pistol Duels 212 The Decline of Elite Dueling and Its Replacement by the Gunfight 220 Honor without Fairness: Vendettas as Chains of Unbalanced Fights 223 Ephemeral Situational Honor and Leap-Frog Escalation to One-Gun Fights 226 Behind the Fac,ade of Honor and Disrespect 229 The Cultural Prestige of Fair and Unfair Fights 237 Chapter 7: Violence as Fun and Entertainment 242 Moral Holidays 243 Looting and Destruction as Participation Sustainers 245 The Wild Party as Elite Potlatch 253 Carousing Zones and Boundary Exclusion Violence 256 End-Resisting Violence 259 Frustrated Carousing and Stirring up Effervescence 261 Paradox: Why Does Most Intoxication Not Lead to Violence? 263 The One-Fight-Per-Venue Limitation 270 Fighting as Action and Fun 274 Mock Fights and Mosh Pits 277 Chapter 8: Sports Violence 282 Sports as Dramatically Contrived Conflicts 283 Game Dynamics and Player Violence 285 Winning by Practical Skills for Producing Emotional Energy Dominance 296 The Timing of Player Violence: Loser-Frustration Fights and Turning-Point Fights 302 Spectators' Game-Dependent Violence 307 Offsite Fans' Violence: Celebration and Defeat Riots 311 Offsite Violence as Sophisticated Technique: Soccer Hooligans 315 The Dramatic Local Construction of Antagonistic Identities 324 Revolt of the Audience in the Era of Entertainers' Domination 328 PART THREE: Dynamics and Structure of Violent Situations 335 Chapter 9: How Fights Start, or Not 337 Normal Limited Acrimony: Griping, Whining, Arguing, Quarreling 338 Boasting and Blustering 345 The Code of the Street: Institutionalized Bluster and Threat 348 Pathways into the Tunnel of Violence 360 Chapter 10: The Violent Few 370 Small Numbers of the Actively and Competently Violent 370 Confrontation Leaders and Action-Seekers: Police 375 Who Wins? 381 Military Snipers: Concealed and Absorbed in Technique 381 Fighter Pilot Aces: Aggressively Imposing Momentum 387 In the Zone versus the Glaze of Combat: Micro-situational Techniques of Interactional Dominance 399 The 9/11 Cockpit Fight 409 11. Violence as Dominance in Emotional Attention Space 413 What Does the Rest of the Crowd Do? 413 Violence without Audiences: Professional Killers and Clandestine Violence 430 Confrontation-Minimizing Terrorist Tactics 440 Violent Niches in Confrontational Attention Space 448 Epilogue Practical Conclusions 463 Notes 467 References 527 Index 555

Winner of the 2011 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, American Sociological Association "Collins's Violence is a sourcebook for the oft-ignored and usually unseen obvious: We humans are bad at violence, even if civilization makes us a bit better at it."--David D. Laitin, Science "Violence is a rare academic work, with both a convincing reappraisal of its scholarly terrain, and enough accessibility and useful advice to attract laymen. The writing is clear and direct--sometimes with a welcome touch of the colloquial--and well illustrated with photographs and charts."--Graeme Wood, New York Sun "Offering a wealth of observations...Randall Collins's overall theory is neat: violence is not easy, hence relatively rare. It is a compelling argument."--Jane Kilby, Times Higher Education "Insofar as his analysis has sought to highlight its micro-situational aspects, he must be applauded. In the future, only interdisciplinary research will be able to approach this topic with the same vigor, and coherence as Collins has provided us in this book."--Paul Armstrong, Canadian Journal of Sociology "The book is a superb commentary on how the emotional energy created by the situation of forward panic produces violence... Collin's exhaustive treatment of the forward panic is a major contribution to the literature and the term is certain to become a standard part of our vocabulary on violence."--John M. Hagedorn, Anthropos "Professor Collins has initiated a much needed discussion of violence, unencumbered by myth and make-believe... After reading this excellent and highly readable volume, there are few myths left remain standing!"--P. A. J. Waddington, Policing "[T]he book is a notable attempt to develop a general sociological theory of interpersonal violence, and anyone interested in violence and peace can learn a great deal from it."--Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Journal of Peace Research "[A] deeply learned, thoughtful, and erudite book... [T]he complexity of thought and the clarity of exposition of this first volume leave the reader both fulfilled and eager. Like the greatest of classical sociological thinkers, Collins is both pointillist and abstract expressionist, synthesizing micro and macro, and always asserting the power of the social."--Michael Kimmel, American Journal of Sociology "Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future."--World Book Industry

"Covering infinitely recurrent strips of social action running from blustering confrontation to intimate physical attack, Violence is peppered with breakthrough insights, demonstrating the power of systematic theory and even concluding with that rarest of sociological contributions, a short list of eminently practical suggestions. The concept of 'forward panic' alone makes the book indispensable. This book is a milestone contribution to criminology, to micro-sociology, to the sociology of emotions, and to a field that knows no academic boundaries: the history of efforts to control violence. Randy Collins has developed a framework that should guide a generation of research."—Jack Katz, University of California, Los Angeles"I have no doubt that this book will be hailed as one of the most important works on violence ever written. After reading it, it is difficult any longer to imagine that all that is needed for violence to occur is a motive to engage in violence. Collins argues persuasively that the situation must also be right if violence is actually to occur."—Donald Black, author of The Social Structure of Right and Wrong"A masterful study of the microdynamics of violence. This book will undoubtedly provoke excitement and controversy among a wide group of readers, including educated nonspecialists as well as academics, journalists, law-enforcement professionals, and policymakers. Truly an original book."—Eiko Ikegami, author of The Taming of the Samurai

Covering infinitely recurrent strips of social action running from blustering confrontation to intimate physical attack, Violence is peppered with breakthrough insights, demonstrating the power of systematic theory and even concluding with that rarest of sociological contributions, a short list of eminently practical suggestions. The concept of 'forward panic' alone makes the book indispensable. This book is a milestone contribution to criminology, to micro-sociology, to the sociology of emotions, and to a field that knows no academic boundaries: the history of efforts to control violence. Randy Collins has developed a framework that should guide a generation of research. -- Jack Katz, University of California, Los Angeles I have no doubt that this book will be hailed as one of the most important works on violence ever written. After reading it, it is difficult any longer to imagine that all that is needed for violence to occur is a motive to engage in violence. Collins argues persuasively that the situation must also be right if violence is actually to occur. -- Donald Black, author of "The Social Structure of Right and Wrong" A masterful study of the microdynamics of violence. This book will undoubtedly provoke excitement and controversy among a wide group of readers, including educated nonspecialists as well as academics, journalists, law-enforcement professionals, and policymakers. Truly an original book. -- Eiko Ikegami, author of "The Taming of the Samurai"