The purpose of this forum is to analyze structural forces as related to acts of violence and perceptions of offenders. How might culture influence both perceptions and actions?
The first link is to an article by Dr. Gary Slutkin, who utilizes an infectious disease model to better understand violence. He provides interesting insight to how societies have viewed violence over time, and how a change in the paradigm might allow for more effective solutions to reducing some types of violent crime. Some of you may have already looked at some of this from links the powerpoints.
The second link is for a lecture by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo discussing Milgram’s experiment on obedience to authority and Bandura’s observation of dehumanization. For this forum, I am most concerned with students watching from about minutes 20 – 32. If you are interested, the entire lecture (about one hour) provides a fascinating insight into the evil capacity of humans, but be prepared for a few graphic images from the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He also discusses his Stanford Prison Experiment if you watch the entire lecture. Focus on how evil begets evil and how heroism begets heroism: Journey From the Psychology of Evil to the Psychology of Heroism
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