Durkheimian Interdisciplinary Approach to Violence Epidemiology

• NCJ Number: 248195
• Author(s): John S. Rankin
• Date Published: September 2014
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses the need for developing an interdisciplinary public health approach to violence.

Abstract

This article presents an argument in favor of developing an interdisciplinary public health approach to violence that includes a historic and ongoing mapping of the epidemiology of extreme acts of violence matched with similar epidemiologies of phantasmal images in mass media and of symbolic representations of different states of larger societies at different times and places. The author argues that while Durkheim's theory of societal conditions linked to broad epidemiological patterns of violence is uniquely relevant to violence as a problem the power of the theory for use in violence research and policy stems from its combination of forms of social integration summarized by social types, epidemiological patterns, and a collective consciousness of the larger society that cannot be directly perceived. The author describes Durkheim's theory of violence epidemiology and how it can be applied to the development of an interdisciplinary public health approach to dealing with violence. References