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

Provides a comprehensive look at violence as rooted in routine conflict in daily social interactions.

When Push Comes to Shove examines the ways in which people define and respond to confrontations and interpersonal dilemmas in their lives. It includes insights from constructionist, interactionist, and criminal event perspectives to present the situational factors that contribute to conflict. The recent revelation that violence is connected with public and private life, and the realization that mainstream society tolerates many forms of violence, leads Kennedy and Forde to explore the circumstances when people use or don't use violent means to solve everyday disputes.

Leslie W. Kennedy is Professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He is the coauthor of several books (with Vince Sacco), including The Criminal Event and most recently, Crime Victims in Context. David R. Forde is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.