The Allied bombing of Dresden, which killed 25,000 civilians, during the Second World War is but one example of state terrorism.
German Federal Archive
To overcome the kind of relativism captured by the cliché “one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”, we need to define terrorism independently of who is employing it. Here is the definition…
Can abusive men change their ways after group sessions?
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“Can a leopard really change its spots?” “Does everyone deserve a second chance?” “Do perpetrator programmes work?” These are some of the questions we are being asked this week as we release findings from…
Laughter and violence have two things in common: they’re both non-verbal and they both occur when words fail.
Cloud Mine Amsterdam/Shutterstock
It should come as no surprise that comedians would feel threatened by the attack on Charlie Hebdo: the freedom to offend is the source of their livelihood, and many who have offended have been threatened…
Break up the fights early.
Teenage fight via Olly/Shutterstock
Teenagers’ opinions about when violence is acceptable or not can be influenced by the way they perceive men and women and the relationships between them. Simply telling young people that violence is wrong…
Man Haron Monis, the hostage-taker in the Sydney siege, in 2009.
AAP/Sergio Dionisio
The events of the Sydney siege this week evolved amid a torrent of speculation and theorising about the motivations and intent of the hostage-taker Man Haron Monis. Some media reporting during the Sydney…
The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, criticised Australia in his opening address to the UN Human Rights Council.
EPA/Salvatore di Nolfi
The Australian government is being examined on Monday evening by the United Nations Committee against Torture. Before the independent committee of experts, an Australian government delegation has to answer…
There is a higher density of gun ownership in country areas in Australia relative to cities. Does this explain recent homicides on farms?
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The recent multiple homicide in a small Victorian township, coming barely a month after a mass shooting in rural New South Wales, may give the impression that firearm-related murders in rural Australia…
Challenging the culture of male violence at night is just as important – if not more so – than the criminal law’s response to the issue.
AAP/David Crosling
The recent killing of 21-year-old Melbourne University student Joshua Hardy is another tragic story of unprovoked, alcohol-fuelled male violence in our community. It is an issue that has animated significant…
Sporting codes need to maintain their stand opposing violence against women.
Gui Seiz/Shutterstock
Male sports stars perpetrating violence against women is a phenomenon that, sadly, seems to cross both international and sporting borders. In the most recent high-profile case, NFL player Ray Rice was…
Violent rhetoric appeals to disaffected young men because it gives them a challenge to express aggression as ‘proof’ of manhood.
Sillouetted children playing as soldiers/Shutterstock
Recent coverage of counterterrorism raids in Australia featured hard-core gyms, anabolic steroids, nightclub bouncers, gangs and weapons. Footage from the Middle East regularly depicts truckloads of young…
An Iraqi man prays at the Al-Noori Al-Kabeer mosque – now draped with the Islamic State flag – in Mosul, northern Iraq.
EPA/STR
Islam has a history of violence. Muslims can be violent. Denying this is not at all different to denying that Islam is peaceful and that all Muslims are pacifists. The dichotomy is simply false. The Qur’an…
Originally, to be honourable meant very different things for men and for women.
Simon
Ideas about personal honour are a major key to understanding violence. This is so today, when “honour” is often replaced by terms such as respect - with “dissing” as its opposite. It was even more true…
In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that anyone else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force. So wrote Mohandas Karamchand…
Incendiaries of varying complexity have been used in warfare since ancient times.
Yann Caradec
The petrol bomb – or “Molotov cocktail” – is an iconic symbol of 20th-century political violence. Simple, cheap and effective, it has become a staple feature of protest, riot and rebellion; a weapon of…
A number of studies link the abuse of animals in childhood with human abuse later in life.
elizabeth tersigni
When we talk about violence, there is an implicit assumption that we mean human-to-human violence. Yet behind the veneer of our civilised society, economy and culture is a massive edifice of violence of…
Some parents still use physical punishment to control or change their child’s annoying or unacceptable behaviours.
Melle V/Shutterstock
Children endure many forms of violence, from slapping and pushing, to fatal assaults; almost one in five of the world’s homicide victims in 2012 were under 20. The recently released UNICEF report on violence…
Understanding violence is the first step towards changing attitudes.
Riccardo Cuppini
Over the coming months, we’ll be running pieces looking at the history and nature of violence. Here Philip Dwyer explains why. Violence – to state the obvious – isn’t new. But interest in the history of…
Steroid use is growing in Australia but not among the usual suspects.
Jhong Dizon/Flickr
Steroids are easy to scapegoat. Users are viewed as aggressive, violent and mentally unstable, able to snap at any moment and cause great harm to the people around them. Ostensibly, it is this perception…
Proportionality in sentencing cannot be achieved through mandatory sentences created as a result of an overreaction to community fear and outrage.
AAP/Dave Hunt
The Victorian government’s introduction of the Sentencing Amendment (Coward’s Punch Manslaughter and Other Matters) Bill 2014 this week has again sparked debate about the deterrence value and general utility…
At least no one got their head cut off …
Emilio Lavandeira Jr/EPA
Another game, another bite. That’s the allegation against Uruguayan Luis Suárez, anyway, who has been accused of sinking his teeth into an opposition player. For the third time. But a mid-game nibble on…