Single cause, single solution?

It is tempting (or convenient) for many to regard violence as arising from a single cause, and consequently to perceive a reduction in violence as certain to arise from a single solution. For example, there are those who think that the removal of televised violence represents the answer to violent behaviour. There are others who perceive more rigorous controls on firearms as the way to eliminate violence.

The most vocal commentators on violence often reflect ideological predispositions or institutional interests. As convenient and as reassuring as it may be to crusade on behalf of a panacea, a proper understanding of violence (and ultimately, of the means for its control) requires an understanding of the variety and complexity of contributing factors.¹

¹ Reproduced with permission from the Australian Institute of Criminology, from National Committee on Violence, 1990, p. 60.

Looking for ticking bombs

Violent crime has penetrated and gripped our society. The ticking clock of crime moves swiftly throughout the day, and a pervasive fear of violence in the workplace has become the most recent threat to the way decent people live...

It has been called an epidemic by those who study disgruntled employees and angry spouses and the violence they perpetrate on innocent employees...

Violent crime is no longer restricted to urban centres and ghettos. The offices, factories, school playgrounds, post offices, fast-food restaurants, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels, grocery stores, banks, convenience stores, and in fact, nearly everywhere people are employed and business is carried out have become the latest sites for disgruntled, unhappy, desperate, often psychiatrically impaired people to vent their rage.²

² Reproduced with permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies, from M. Mantell and S. Albrecht, Ticking bomb: Defusing violence in the workplace (Burr Ridge, Illinois, Irwin Professional Publishing), 1994, pp. ix-x.