Violence: The Enduring Problem

This Second Edition of Violence: The Enduring Problem offers an interdisciplinary and reader-friendly exploration of the many types of individual and collective violent acts―examining the linkages, behaviors, ideas, perceptions, and justifications that connect these types of violence. Inspired by the fear of pervasive violence in the world, authors Alex Alvarez and Ronet Bachman address the various legislative, social, and political efforts to curb violent behavior. They expertly incorporate the most up-to-date research and theories to help students analyze the patterns and correlates of violence. While most texts of this type simply cover individual acts of violence, this book presents a broader perspective, covering more collective violence activities: terrorism, mob violence, and genocide.

Alex Alvarez, PhD, is a professor in the department of criminology and criminal justice at

Northern Arizona University. From 2001 until 2003, he was the founding director of the

Martin-Springer Institute for Teaching the Holocaust, Tolerance, and Humanitarian Values.

In 2017–2018, he served as the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Holocaust and

Genocide Studies at Stockton University. His first book, Governments, Citizens, and Genocide,

was published by Indiana University Press in 2001. His other books include Murder American

Style (2002), Genocidal Crimes (2009), Native America and the Question of Genocide (2014), and

Unsteady Ground: Climate Change, Conflict, and Genocide (2017). He has also served as an editor

for the journal Violence and Victims, was a founding coeditor of the journal Genocide Studies

and Prevention, and is an editor for Genocide Studies International. He has been invited to speak

and present his research across North America and Europe.

Ronet D. Bachman, PhD, worked as a statistician at the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.

Department of Justice, before going back to an academic career; she is now a professor in the

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor

of Statistical Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice and coeditor of Explaining Criminals

and Crime: Essays in Contemporary Criminal Theory. In addition, she is the author of Death and

Violence on the Reservation and coauthor of Stress, Culture, and Aggression; Murder American

Style; and Violence: The Enduring Problem, along with numerous articles and papers that examine

the epidemiology and etiology of violence, with particular emphasis on women, the elderly,

and minority populations as well as research examining desistance from crime. Her most recent

federally funded research was a mixed-methods study that examined the long-term desistance

trajectories of criminal justice involved drug-involved individuals who have been followed with

both quantitative and interview data for nearly thirty years. Her current state-funded research is

assessing the needs of violent crime victims, especially those whose voices are rarely heard such

as loved ones of homicide victims.