"Gregg Barak′s Violence and Nonviolence is a thoughtful, comprehensive examination of violence in the United States. Structurally and conceptually this book works. Barak addresses violence in an interdisciplinary way, addressing history, psychology, biology, cultural studies, and sociology. Moreover, Barak does an excellent job of discussing the intersection of race, class, and gender and those relationships with violence."
-- Heather Melton, University of Utah
"Clearly, the strength of this book is its comprehensive and reciprocal approach. I found this to be an enjoyable and provocative book… that treats the topic holistically and offers a vision for overcoming current patterns of violence. I am convinced that this is an important work that will ultimately be well-received by undergraduates, graduate students, violence specialists, and general readers."
-- Mathew T. Lee, University of Akron
"I think that the strengths of this book are twofold: Barak′s approach disaggregates violence into interpersonal, institutional, and structural violence which is very important yet rarely done; the latter part of the book explores the pathways to nonviolence, an underrepresented area in the study of violence."
--Charis Kubrin/Sociology, George Washington University
"I have devoted close to 20 years studying and teaching about violence and I must say that this is a comprehensive book....I strongly believe that Barak has done an outstanding review of the extant literature and touches upon key issues of central concern to those of us who are social scientific experts on violence."
--Walter Dekeseredy, Ohio University
Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding is the first book to provide an integrative, systematic approach to the study of violence and nonviolence in one volume. Eminent scholar and award-winning author Gregg Barak examines virtually all forms of violence―from verbal abuse to genocide―and treats all of these expressions of violence as interpersonal, institutional, and structural occurrences. In the context of recovery and nonviolence, Barak addresses peace and conflict studies, legal rights, social justice, and various nonviolent movements. Employing an interdisciplinary framework, Barak emphasizes the importance of culture, media, sexuality, gender, and social structure in developing a comprehensive theory of these two separate, but inseparable phenomena.
This innovative and accessible volume includes
- Figures, tables, and illustrations that reinforce important concepts and relationships
- Introduces a new, original theory of reciprocal violence and nonviolence
- Numerous case studies on violence and recovery throughout the book
- Chapter summaries and review questions to aid student comprehension
- Models of nonviolence such as "mutuality," "altruistic humanism," "positive peacemaking," and "resiliency"
Designed to be a core text for graduate and undergraduate courses on violence in criminology, sociology, criminal justice, and social work departments, Violence and Nonviolence is also an outstanding supplementary text for violence against women and criminal behavior courses. This book will transform the way students and readers think about violence, nonviolence, and the reciprocal relationship between the two.
Gregg Barak is professor of criminology and criminal justice and former department head of sociology, anthropology, and criminology at Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Barak is the editor and/or author of some 20 books and three of these are award winning titles. Most recently, these books and awards include:
Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist: Working the Margins of Law, Power, and Justice. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020.
Class, Race, Gender, and Crime: The Social Realities of Justice in America, 5th edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2018. (Co-authors P. Leighton & A. Cotton).
Unchecked Corporate Power: Why the Crimes of Multinational Corporations are Routinized Away and What We Can Do About It. London and New York: Routledge. 2017. (Recipient of the Outstanding Book Award for 2017 from the ASC’s Division of White Collar and Corporate Crime).
The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful. Editor and Contributor. London & New York: Routledge. 2015.
Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. (Recipient of the Outstanding Publication Award for 2012 from the White Collar Crime Research Consortium and the National Center for White Collar Crime, Washington, D.C.).
Professor Barak has served as Chair of the Critical Division of the American Society of Criminology, was the Critical Criminologist of the Year in 1999, and has served on more than a dozen editorial boards.
