ABSTRACT
Understanding violent crime The way in which we understand violence is much infl uenced by culture and history. If you have read the chapter on punishment (Chapter 23), you will have come across a number of examples of the infl iction of pain that would be considered pretty much unthinkable in our society these days. We live in times when debates about the notion of ‘torture’ are once again a major political issue. Centuries ago those techniques we now condemn as torture would have been used routinely against certain types of offenders. Standards change over time – and vary between cultures. Although we no longer use corporal or capital punishment in Britain, we did so until relatively recently and others continue to do so. In thinking about violence, therefore, we need to think carefully about the context in which it is used. The subject of the fi rst two-thirds of this chapter – violent crime – alerts you to the fact that we are talking about the use of violence in circumstances in which it is considered illegal.
