When Push Comes to Shove: A Routine Conflict Approach to Violence

• NCJ Number: 180585
• Author(s): Leslie W. Kennedy; David R. Forde
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 211 pages
• Sale Source: State University of New York Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: SUNY series in Violence

Annotation

This book examines the ways in which people define and respond to confrontations and interpersonal dilemmas in their lives; it includes insights from contructionist, interactionist, and criminal event perspectives to present the situational factors that contribute to conflict.

Abstract

The book develops an explanation of the social roots of violence by using an approach that attends both to low-intensity and high-intensity conflict that originates from social interaction. The authors elaborate on the theory that violent behavior can be explained by circumstances surrounding the event, previous relationships, and/or the presence of drugs or alcohol. Violent offenses may emerge from interactions gone bad, may develop from a desire to coerce or punish others, and may be due to anger or frustration. These outcomes derive from the ongoing interaction in which people involve themselves daily. The rules or conventions that govern these interactions may include choices that preclude violent or aggressive action. Alternatively, the choices people make may be so limited that violence seems to them a reasonable option for resolving certain types of conflict. A review of the literature on criminal offenders and aggression is followed by a summary of the theoretical basis for a theory of routine conflict, drawing on the approaches to the study of crime and violence. First, a social constructionist approach is used to define the acceptability of violence in society; second, the crime event perspective explains how crime is a process; and social interactionist theory explains how disputes may be acts of coercion. A description of the data sources for the study is followed by an examination of the social factors that may explain the approval of violence and aggression. Other chapters summarize respondents' accounts of how actual conflicts evolve and apply routine conflict theory to a study of street kids to contrast their approval of violence with perspectives of the general population. The book concludes by addressing some practical issues regarding violence, particularly alternatives that can be offered individuals to reduce the routine use of violence. 22 tables, 20 figures, and 135 references