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 Collins, R. (2008). Violence: A Micro-Sociological Approach. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

 Skip chapters 6, 7, 8, 10, 11

 BIG QUESTIONS

  1. Collins makes the case that crossing the threshold and acting violently, is difficult; that people are socialized to avoid violence.
    1. What, specifically, makes it so difficult for individuals or groups to act violently?
    2. What is the evidence basis on which he makes this assertion? What are your reactions to his evidence basis?
    3. How do you evaluate his theoretical argument about what is happening in terms of processes?
  2. In a potentially violent confrontation between, individuals experience tension/fear.
    1. What is the source of this tension/fear?
    2. In general terms, what are the different ways it can be resolved/overcome/avoided?
  3. What does Collins mean when he says his model is situationist? This is as compared to what other type of approach?
  4. What does he think about the “standard” predictors of violence at the personal or ecological levels? Stated differently, what does he think is the problem with “existing explanations of violence”?
  5. What are your thoughts about his evidence base?

 BY CHAPTER

 CH 1

  1. What does he mean when he says “conflict is not violence”?
  2. Can you explain why “sampling on the dependent variable” creates a problem for many criminological theories?
  3. What are the limitations of focusing on violent individuals rather than violent situations?
  4. How does Collins interpret the fact that “most of the time” there is very little violence? Do you agree or disagree with this assertion?
  5. He says routine activity theory (an opportunity theory) and social control theory are “on the right track” but go awry. Explain.
  6. What does he think is wrong with Black’s behavior of law model?
  7. What does he think is wrong with cultural explanations of violence?
  8. What does he think about evolutionary models? What does he mean when he says “the first mistake is about what is genetically evolved”? Your reactions?
  9. “Violence is not primordial and civilization does not tame it; the opposite is much nearer the truth.” By the time you get to the end of the book you should be able to explain why he says this, and also have a reaction/criticism of it.
  10. What are his data sources? Reactions?

CH 2

  1. Be able to define, and give examples of tension/fear, and describe the evidence base suggesting this, and the implications and consequences.
  2. What is the SLAM effect? What implications does Collns draw from this effect?
  3. How does he interpret high firing rates for group operated weapons?
  4. What are the ways tension/fear of violent confrontation are counteracted?
  5. How does he interpret the low efficiency of firing personal weapons at close range?
  6. Friendly fire and bystander hits come about why?
  7. He orders combat behaviors on the tension/fear continuum. Does this make sense to you or not? Explain.
  8. How is rhetorical ferociousness patterned?
  9. “Not violent individuals, but violent situations … not fearful individuals, but fearful positions” (70). What leads Collins to this statement? What does this say about his view regarding criminal motivation? About human nature more broadly? Do you agree or disagree? Why? [IMPORTANT]
  10. Does Collins think the dynamics around tension/fear in military situations are the same in non-military situations? Why? How do you respond to this assertion? [IMPORTANT – also – think about this as a general question for the whole book, not just for Ch. 2).
  11. What are the various sources of fight tension?
  12. What does he say we know from normal interaction?
  13. He says “there is a human propensity to become caught up in the micro-interactional rituals of solidarity.” The evidence for this is presented in his earlier book, but how do you react to this?
  14. How do the fears and tension connect? Does this make sense to you?
  15. “The fundamental tension is not fear of an external object; it is a struggle of opposition action tendencies within oneself … the basic tension can be called non-solidarity entrainment.” Your interpretation and reactions? Can you given an example? [IMPORTANT]

CH 3

  1. What are the steps in a forward panic?
  2. “most incidents of police violence that create public scandals have the character of forward panic.” Reactions?
  3. Why does the violence go too far (overkill)?
  4. According to Collins, in what ways are the explanations of atrocities missing the mark?
  5. Does Collins sometimes fall into the fallacy of reifying (e.g.,, 104 and reifying “shared emotional field” or “interactional mood”?
  6. Do you agree or disagree with his analysis of the Diallo shooting? Why or why not?
  7. Do you agree or disagree with what he says about the role of racism in the Diallo shooting?
  8. Is his model uni-causal or multi-causal?
  9. Psychologists say large crowds create deindividuation [1] - Collins disagrees; why? Your reactions?

CH 4

  1. Describe his analysis of domestic violence? Do you agree or disagree with it and why?
  2. Explain what he means by background and foreground explanations. Does this make sense to you? Can you give examples?
  3. Why does he dismiss “the usual suspects for causing domestic violence”? Your reactions?
  4. What is the pattern over time leading to elder abuse?
  5. When is couple violence limited? When does it increase?
  6. With children and spousal fights, what is “severe abuse”?
  7. He says that “negotiation” can lead to a violent relationship. Explain. Your reactions to his exlanation? In what ways is social learning going on for both parties?
  8. Collins’ model is highly indeterminate: “the indeterminacy of background variables in predicting domestic violence, as well as the indeterminacy of going down any of the particular pathways, is not methodological or philosophical, but real. It is an indeterminacy of the world, since it is a matter of how individuals actually work out a chain of interaction rituals.” Does this make his model probabilitistic and predictive, or only post-hoc and descriptive? Explain.
  9. what role does coincidence play.

CH 5

  1. What are the degrees of confrontation in muggings/holdups?
  2. What roles do guns play in armed stickups?
  3. He links loss of emotional energy to victimhood. Reactions?

CH 9

  1. What are the implications of him saying, about fighting or not, “the determining conditions are overhwhelmingly in their short-term interaction”? Do you agree or disagree?
  2. What does he say about the causal role of motives? Your reactions.
  3. What is macho culture about?
  4. What are the two pathways to conflict arising and being expressed?
  5. How is normal acrimony carried out?
  6. How does Anderson’s “code of the street” fit into Collins’ model?
  7. How do folks  make “claims to dominate the interactional space”?
  8. Collins says the code prevents big violence by allowing small violence. Explain. Reactions? What is the hierarchy of gang violence?
  9. What are the “four micro-pathways that flow into or away from the tunnel of violence”?

Key terms

Arguing

Blustering

Boasting

dominate

face-work

Griping

Interactional entrainment

interactional space

Quarreling

Whining

 

[1] For more on deindividuation see: Diener, E., Fraser, S. C., Beaman, A. L., & Kelem, R. T. (1976). Effects of deindividuation variables on stealing among Halloween trick-or-treaters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 178-183; Zimbardo, P. (2008). The Lucifer Effect. New York: Random House.