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The Geometry of Violence and Democracy.

Pepinsky, Hal.
June 4, 2015

Source: (1991) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 160p.

A theoretical essay radically reconceptualizes the crime problem, shifting the emphasis from how offenders behave to how people’s motives interact and from a distinct social problem to an inseparable part of the problem of how to make peace instead of war. Drawing from chaos theory and other sources outside social science, crime and punishment are conceptualized as synonymous forms of a larger violence, which rises and falls as systems of power are concentrated and dissipated. The antithesis of violence is a realm of interaction: democracy: where people do not feel violated and are not perceived as engaging in violence. The only path away from crime and violence is to substitute democratic interaction for them.

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