CCJS 225: Responses to Violence - Vocabulary Review

A complete vocabulary review covering typologies of violence, historical crime trends, Enlightenment theories, psychological drivers, and cognitive behavioral intervention frameworks.

Unwarranted Pessimism

A widespread psychological phenomenon documented in a $2022$ study where individuals erroneously believe societal conditions such as poverty, health, education, and crime are deteriorating over the past $20$ years despite statistical evidence showing significant progress.

Typology of Violence Continuum

A conceptual framework mapping violence along a spectrum from private, rarely lethal, spontaneous, expressive, and common incidents (such as at home) to public, frequently lethal, planned, instrumental, and uncommon incidents (such as state violence).

Pinker's Definition of Violence

Treatment or behavior in which physical force is exerted against sentient beings for the purpose of causing damage or injury, encompassing individual actions like homicide and rape, as well as institutional actions like war and genocide.

The Leviathan

A concept established by Thomas Hobbes in $1651$ referring to a strong central state authority that maintains a monopoly on legitimate force to prevent the state of nature and reduce interpersonal violence.

Hobbes' Three Causes of Quarrel

The three principal drivers of conflict in human nature defined in Leviathan: competition (invading for gain), diffidence (invading for safety), and glory (invading for reputation).

Noble Savage Concept

An idea associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposing that humans in their original state of nature were inherently good and peaceful, but were subsequently corrupted by civilization and private property.

Verkko's Law

A criminological principle stating that male-to-male violence rates fluctuate more dramatically than other homicide rates, and as overall homicide rates rise, the proportion of male-to-male dominance contests increases.

The Civilizing Process

Norbert Elias's theory that European homicide rates dropped significantly between the Middle Ages and modern era due to centralized state control and economic integration, which shifted societal norms from honor-based revenge to self-restrained dignity.

Self-Help Violence

Steven Pinker's characterization of illegal or informal violence in disenfranchised communities where citizens lack trust in state law enforcement, leading individuals to act as private judge, jury, and executioner.

The Humanitarian Revolution

A historic transition starting in the $18\text{th}$ century Enlightenment where institutionalized forms of violence—such as judicial torture, capital punishment, witchcraft burnings, and slavery—were systematically challenged and abolished.

Classical Liberalism

An Enlightenment-era political philosophy built on skepticism, humanism, and reason, which established foundational human rights documents like the $1776$ American Declaration of Independence and the $1789$ French Declaration of the Rights of Man.

The Long Peace

The historical era following World War II characterized by the absence of direct military conflicts between major global superpowers and zero territorial expansion through conquest by major powers.

The New Peace

The global trend observed since the end of the Cold War in $1989$ marked by an overall decline in organized conflicts, including civil wars, genocides, autocratic repression, and international terrorist attacks.

The Moralization Gap

The cognitive divergence in conflict narratives where perpetrators minimize their actions as rational or justified responses, while victims perceive the same acts as unprovoked, excessive, and pure evil.

Predatory Aggression

A biological form of instrumental aggression used as a goal-oriented tool or means to an end, requiring no prior emotional anger or animosity toward the target.

Dominance Aggression

A form of aggression driven by emotional rage, hostility, and status-seeking, typically observed in males competing for hierarchical status or mating opportunities.

Oxytocin

A hormone produced in the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland that facilitates social bonding, childbirth, and empathy, contributing to pro-social and altruistic behaviors.

The Dunbar Number

The theoretical cognitive limit on the number of stable social relationships humans can comfortably maintain, estimated to be approximately $150$ individuals.

The Expanding Circle

The concept describing how human empathy historically broadens beyond self and kin to encompass social groups, all humans, and eventually animal life and all ecosystems.

Moral Foundations Theory

A psychological framework identifying core innate psychological systems—Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Purity, Equality, and Proportionality—that form the basis of cross-cultural human morality.

The Pacifist's Dilemma

A game-theoretic payoff matrix illustrating how fear of being exploited by an aggressor drives rational actors toward mutual aggression and war ($-50$ payoff) instead of mutual pacifism and peace ($+150$ payoff).

Gentle Commerce

The Enlightenment principle that international trade and economic exchange incentivize peace over plunder, as trading partners become more valuable alive than dead.

Roca

An organization dedicated to disrupting urban violence by engaging high-risk young adults (ages $16\text{--}24$) through intensive outreach and cognitive behavioral skills training to address trauma and reduce recidivism.

Rewire CBT

An evidence-based, simple cognitive behavioral therapy curriculum developed by Roca and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) consisting of $7$ core skills designed to improve emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and behavior activation in high-risk individuals.

7 Core Rewire CBT Skills

The practical behavioral skills taught in Roca's Rewire CBT framework: Stick With It, Move It, Act On Your Values, Flex Your Thinking, Be Present, Solve It, and Label Your Feelings.