Understanding Violence: New Data and Theory

This Research Topic on violence foregrounds new ideas, concepts, and frameworks that might advance our understanding of violence. It also provides a space for new datasets and new forms of critique that address the realities of violence in all its forms.

While many suggest that civil society continues to move forward towards some hazy civilizational ideal, it seems to us perfectly obvious that violence of various kinds continues to be a crucial feature of contemporary societies. In this Research Topic, we explore how violence occurs, what violence means to participants, the effect of violence upon victims, and the role of systemic violence in driving antagonism, enmity, and social competition.

The scope of the Research Topic is understandably broad. We are open to innovative submissions from academics researching and writing about violence in all its forms. We have no intention of simply rehearsing out-of-date ideas from the twentieth century. We are interested in the causes of violence; the contexts in which violence occurs; victims and perpetrators of violence, and the deeper forms of violence that play a central role in the constitution of everyday life. We welcome ideology critique, theoretical work, and papers that describe recent empirical research projects.

Keywords: systemic violence, subjective violence, symbolic violence, masculinities, familial violence, cultures of violence, violent subcultures, violent spaces, outcomes of violence, victims of violence, perpetrators of violence

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.