ABSTRACT
Violent crimes generally top the list of concerns with deviance and social control in every society. Yet as we have stressed in this text, violent crime, as with all offending, is a relative phenomenon. Violence, deployment of strong physical force, can unfold in myriad forms (e.g. martial arts, boxing, football, hunting, military training and operation, self-defense, police use of force, etc.). The varieties selected for criminalization vary across time and space and are driven by ideology. Most will agree that not all violence is bad, such as that which put down the Nazi scourge in World War II, forestalling even greater human suffering. Likewise, most Americans and many around the world felt relief, not remorse, when Osama bin Laden was shot to death amidst clandestine Special Operations activity. Depending on ideological premise, however,
various violent acts come to be more broadly reacted to as unacceptable. Should waterboarding of suspected terrorists be allowed? How much physical force to discipline a child, if any, should be tolerated? Is any violence within families (e.g. pushing, slapping, restraining) ever acceptable? How about violence in sports? Recent successful lawsuits against the National Football League (NFL) for lasting effects of severe brain injuries resulting from concussions suggests reconceptualization of this popular form of acceptable violence is afoot.
