This paper review the theoretical bases for understanding and addressing violent criminal behavior. It then discusses ways of dealing with that behavior. The paper also specifically addresses domestic violence.
The rate of violent crime in the United States is the highest among all developed countries and is higher than that found in most developing countries ("The secret," 1994, pp. 38-40). Violent crime consistently increases in the United States at the rate of 5 percent per year. Violence in the United States has reached epidemic proportions (Mason, 1993, pp. 1-3). Violence is most typically an outgrowth of conflict when peaceful dispute mechanisms fail.
Most of the theoretical studies devoted to the discovery of ways to reduce levels of criminal behavior emphasize one of two general ways to attack the problem. First, some theories hold that the underlying causes of anti-social behaviors (poverty, injustices=perceived or real, and so forth) must be addressed, if the frequency of anti-social behaviors is to be reduced by any significant degree (Berger, 1991, pp. 221-238); Wilson, 1994, pp. 25-34). The thrust of these theories is that, by eliminating the underlying causes of anti-social behaviors, either the behaviors themselves will be eliminated or their frequencies of occurrence will be significantly reduced.
The second broad group of theoretical studies emphasizes the relationship between the control of social behaviors and reductions in the frequency of occurrence of anti-social behaviors (Hall, Hirschman, & Beutler, 1991, pp. 619-681). This group of studies includes a wide variety of approaches put forward as means of controlling social behaviors-running the gamut from the use of punishment and sentencing procedures as a deterrent to the commission of anti-social behaviors, to the use of community involvement as a means of reducing the frequencies of anti-social behaviors.
Existing studies in the literat...