Conceptualizing violence after the situational turn

• In Event: Conceptual and Community Level Approaches to Violence

Abstract

In recent years, a situational turn has taken place in criminological research on violence. Randall Collins' (2011) approach is paradigmatic of this. His microsociological approach makes two significant changes in perspective compared to previous approaches: firstly, his explanatory model of violence attempts to focus exclusively on the situation of escalating violence and to ignore all other background conditions in order to be applicable to all forms of violence (legal and illegal use of violence). Secondly, Collins (2011, p. 35) contradicts most theories of violence, including situational theories (e.g. routine activity approach), which assume that motivated perpetrators find it easy to use violence when the opportunity is favorable. In contrast, he argues that the use of violence is fundamentally unlikely, as violent situations are always characterized by an emotional field of fear and tension and people have a fundamental “fear of confrontation”. For violence to escalate, participants must overcome their confrontational tension and emotionally dominate the situation, which in turn depends largely on situational conditions. How can this approach be used fruitfully in criminological research?
The paper argues in favor of a triadic concept of violence, according to which violence is a situation-related practice of action that is, however, disputed between the perpetrators of violence, those affected by violence and observers of violence. This indicates that the empirical definition of an event or behavior as violence is dependent on field-specific patterns of interpretation. As shown by examples from research on violence against state representatives, these different perspectives cannot be reconciled and remain irreconcilable, so that scientific analysis initially only has the possibility of reconstructing the respective situational “violent event” from different perspectives and at the same time identifying the respective motivations for action, notions of normality and sensitivities to violence.

Authors

• Vincenz Leuschner, Berlin School of Economics and Law

• Daniela Hunold, HWR Berlin − Berlin School of Economics and Law

• Alexander Bosch, Berlin School of Economics and Law

• Max Laube, Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law)