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Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict
Academia Nr: 22 (März - Juni / marzo - giugno 2000)Melissa Magliana
When on Tuesday April 20, 1999, two teenagers launched a military-style attack in their high school in Littleton Colorado, killing twelve and injuring 20, the United States and world community were outraged. The recent shooting in a Michigan school of a six year old girl by her classmate, also six, has only magnified the public's distress at the increased violence and the growing number of school shootings in the United States. How could one explain this recent rise in teen violence and youth crimes? To what extent could violence in television and movies, or the media coverage given to such events be blamed? Where does the psychological motivation for such crimes - hate crimes in particular – come from? And how should the legal system deal with juvenile criminals? The list of questions is endless and touches on topics in the fields of psychology, law, justice, communications and many more. And although there are certainly no easy answers to these questions, a place in which to begin research on one or several of these themes has always been lacking. Until now. The Encyclopedia of Violence Peace and Conflict, a new addition to the library of the European Academy addresses each of the above mentioned themes, and many more.
The three volume encyclopedia, edited by Lester Kurtz, provides a myriad of articles on topics including
- The Impact of Television on Children, Suicide and Other Violence toward the Self, Police Brutality and Juvenile Crime, The Death Penalty, Sports, or Moral Judgements and Violence.Of course one can also find more traditional information on say, various
- Theories of Conflict, Nongovernmental Actors in International Politics, or Peace and Democracy.
The Encyclopedia of Violence Peace and Conflict represents the first attempt to deal with these topics in such an all encompassing manner, and moreover, has succeeded in providing an impressive, well-written and well-researched work. Containing articles by over 200 renowned contributors, the encyclopedia provides a new and refreshing perspective to the field of conflict studies through its multidisciplinary approach. Including articles from the fields of anthropology, biomedical studies, communications, criminology, cultural and ethnical studies, in addition to the more traditional fields such as politics and international relations, the work succeeds in providing a full and extensive study on violence, conflict and peace. Moreover, the goal being to enhance our understanding of these crucial phenomena and to stimulate new research, insights, and better public policies, the articles do not seek to give definitions or present specific arguments, rather they serve to clarify developments in thought that have led to current theories and positions on violence and aggression.
As regards the structure of the encyclopedia, it is extremely user-friendly. Each volume includes a standard table of contents for the entire work, a list of contents organized by subject area, as well as a list of authors and their contributions. Articles begin with a brief glossary, defining the terms according to the context in which they are used by the author, an outline of the article itself, as well as an opening statement, which summarizes the content. Furthermore, in order to facilitate research on a particular topic – and in addition to the standard index - each article has cross-references with other articles in the set, which can be consulted for further information in a given field. For instance, an article on Women and War has references to ten others including
- Feminist and Peace Perspectives on Women, Military Culture, Sexual Assault and Gender Studies. Through these various organizational aids more efficient research is facilitated, as one does not need to lose time flipping through an article to assess its relevance or usefulness. Whether as a point of departure for newcomers in the field, as a resource for those who wish to broaden their scope of knowledge in specific fields, as a point of reference for those seeking to investigate the relationship between violence and another field, or simply for those who would like to have access to interesting and well written articles on a vast variety of topics, this three volume set is ideal.
One can only hope that through works such as this encyclopedia and more intensive and interdisciplinary studies on the causes and consequences of conflict and violence, as well as on the promotion of peace, that tragedies similar to that in Colorado or in Michigan can be better understood and consequently avoided. A familiar scene for anyone who followed the Columbine shootings on television: a student trying to escape from a second story windowMelissa Magliana European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano Minorities and regional autonomies mailto:melissa.magliana@eurac.edu
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