States of Violence and the Civilising Process States of Violence and the Civilising Process
Critical Criminological Perspectives

States of Violence and the Civilising Process

On Criminology and State Crime

    • $129.99
    • $129.99

Publisher Description

This book offers a distinctive and novel approach to state-sponsored violence, one of the major problems facing humanity in the previous and now the twenty-first century. It addresses the question: how is it possible that large numbers of ordinary men and women are able to do the killing, torturing and violence that defines crimes against humanity? In his striking analysis, Rob Watts shows how and why states, of all political persuasions, engage in crimes against humanity, including: genocide, homicide, torture, kidnapping, illegal surveillance and detention.
This book advances a new interpretive frame. It argues against the ‘civilizing process’ model, showing how both states and social sciences like sociology and criminology have been complicit in splitting 'the social' from 'the ethical' while accepting too complacently that modern states are the exemplars of morality and rationality. The book makes the case that it is possible to bring together in the one interpretative frame, our understanding of social action involving personal motivation and ethical responsibility and patterns of collective social action operating in terms of the agencies of ‘the State’. Rob Watts identifies and charts the pathways of action and ‘practical’ (i.e. ethical) judgements which the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity constructed for themselves to make sense of what they were doing.
At once challenging and highly accessible, the book reveals the policy-making processes that produce state crime as well as showing how ordinary people do the state’s dirty work. 
Rob Watts is Professor of Social Policy at RMIT University, Australia. His previous publications include The Foundations of the National Welfare State (1987), Arguing About the Australian Welfare State (1992), Discovering Risk (2006), Talking Policy: Australian Social Policy (2007) and International Criminology: A Critical Introduction (2009).

GENRE
Non-Fiction
RELEASED
2016
30 May
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
425
Pages
PUBLISHER
Palgrave Macmillan UK
SELLER
Springer Nature B.V.
SIZE
2
MB
Critical Criminology Critical Criminology
2013
Thinking About Criminology Thinking About Criminology
2005
Contesting Empire, Globalizing Dissent Contesting Empire, Globalizing Dissent
2015
Culture and Civilization Culture and Civilization
2018
Sticky Reputations Sticky Reputations
2012
The Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Criminology The Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Criminology
2017
Talking Policy Talking Policy
2020
Criminalizing Dissent Criminalizing Dissent
2019
The Precarious Generation The Precarious Generation
2017
Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education
2016
International Criminology International Criminology
2008
Critiquing Evidence-Based Policing in Britain Critiquing Evidence-Based Policing in Britain
2024
Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm
2023
Colorblind Colorblind
2023
Transgender People and Criminal Justice Transgender People and Criminal Justice
2023
Artificial Intelligence, Social Harms and Human Rights Artificial Intelligence, Social Harms and Human Rights
2023
Gender, Power and Restorative Justice Gender, Power and Restorative Justice
2022