"Cooney raises fundamental issues concerning the nature of the
sociological enterprise in general and of the understanding of violence
and conflict within society in particular. [He] is convincing in his
demonstration that any understanding of violence and conflict within
society must take into account the role of third parties (e.g.,
relatives, friends, neighbors, strangers, or legal officials) as a force
for violence or peace." -Choice Why do some conflicts escalate into
violence while others dissipate harmlessly? Under what circumstances
will people kill, and why? While homicide has been viewed largely in the
pathological terms of "crime" and "deviance," violence, Mark Cooney
contends, is a naturally-occurring form of conflict found throughout
history and across cultures under certain social conditions. Cooney has
analyzed the social control of homicide within and across over 30
societies and interviewed several dozens of prisoners incarcerated for
murder or manslaughter, as well as members of their families. Violence
such as homicide can only be understood, he argues, by transcending the
traditional focus on the social characteristics of the killer and
victims, and by looking at the role played by family members, friends,
neighbors, onlookers, police officers, and judges. These third parties
can be a source of peace or violence, depending on how they are
configured in particular cases. Violence flourishes, Cooney
demonstrates, when authority is either very strong or very weak and when
third-party ties are strong and boundaries between groups sharply
defined. Drawing on recent theory in the lively new sociological
speciality of conflict management, Mark Cooney has culled a vast array
of evidence from modern and preindustrial societies to provide us with
the first general sociological analysis of human violence.
