Violence & Society

IntroductionWhat Is Violence?Origins of ViolenceViolence, Bodies and CivilizationSpaces of ViolenceMasculinities and ViolenceViolence and the Private SphereExplaining HomicideThe Politics of 'Hate Crime'Modernity and the Holocaust Conclusion

I joined the University of Kent in 1998. Before that I was in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. In 1996, I was visiting scholar, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. At Kent I was Head of the Department of Sociology and then SSPSSR between 1999-2001, and Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences between 2009-11. I am currently Director of Research for SSPSSR.

A brave, ambitious and original book that ranges widely across disciplines and from close analysis of local patterns of violence to some of the largest questions of human history and social theory. Compared with most criminological texts it is like a breath of fresh air David SmithProfessor of Criminology, Lancaster University



Violence is one of these main human mysteries that deserve a strong renewal within social science. And today, a new generation of researchers is appearing, that takes this challenge seriously, and proposes new analytical tools in order to deal with violence. Discussing Norbert Elias, and introducing original ideas about masculinity, the body, or on the Holocaust, Larry Ray appears with this book as one of the leading scholars in this new generation Michel WieviorkaPresident ISA (2006-2010), and President of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris)



Larry Ray's Violence and Society offers an intelligent distillation of many crucial areas of study... The most obvious advantage of Ray's new book is that it often appears to forget that it is indeed a textbook. It roams around the broad intellectual panorama of the social sciences and humanities, overstepping restrictive disciplinary barriers without a care... Violence and Society is a book that criminology has sorely needed for some time, and a godsend for those of us teaching undergraduate courses on violence. It is that rarest of things: an intelligent and challenging textbook that goes beyond the received wisdom. I unreservedly recommend it.Simon WinlowBritish Journal of Criminology

[Violence and Society] provides an excellent analysis of many forms of violence and opens your eyes to the fact that violence is not as straightforward as many people think. The author has a vast array of experience researching in the field, from the ethno-nationalist civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, to projects on racial violence as part of the ESRC's