The Violence Problem

Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Tue, 23 Dec 1997 11:09:26 +0000


I spent the past year in graduate school studying the topic of
violence, and I have been following this thread with interest, but I
must confess to some confusion as to the points being made. Can
someone please address the following:

(i) just what type of violence is being discussed? War, assault,
torture, hate crimes, etc? The literature in recent years has
branched off to address these in singe form, as the complex of
factors that lead to them is different, and some areas are better
understood than others. (ie, serial killers can be labeled mentally
ill in most cases, but perfectly sane people commit hate crimes)

(ii) again, I must please beg of you not to immediately cast all
violence into the catagory of neurochemical causes, as to
predetermine that all violence is caused by mental chemical imbalance
automatically shuts off other avenues of dealing with it.

Kathryn Aegis