Gilligan J. Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and its Causes. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1996.

Gilligan, the former director of Mental Health in the Massachusetts prison system presents the view that "all violence is an attempt to achieve justice or what the violent person perceives as justice, for himself or for whomever it is on whose behalf he is being violent, so as to receive whatever retribution or compensation the violent person feels is "due" him or "owed" to him or to those on whose behalf he is acting, whatever he or they are "entitled" to or have a "right" to; or so as to prevent those whom one loves or identifies with from being subjected to injustice." He looks at the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, and the gap between aspiration and achievement on the part of the poor themselves. Gilligan tries to elucidate "the psychological mechanism that causes this relationship between aspiration, frustration, and violence, — namely that violence is a function of shame, and shame is a function of the size of the gap between aspiration and achievement." 

Table of Contents

Prologue

Violence as Tragedy

PART I: THE PATHOLOGY OF VIOLENCE

Chapter 1 Visits to Hell: Entering the world of the prison

Chapter 2 Dead Souls

Chapter 3 Violent Action as Symbolic Language: Myth, Ritual, and Tragedy

PART II: THE 'GERM THEORY' OF VIOLENCE

Chapter 4 How to Think About Violence

Chapter 5 Shame: The Emotions and Morality of Violence

PART III: THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF VIOLENCE

Chapter 6 The Symbolism of Punishment

Chapter 7 How to Increase the Rate of Violence — and Why

Chapter 8 The Deadliest Form of Violence Is Poverty

Chapter 9 The Biology of Violence

Chapter 10 Culture, Gender, and Violence: "We Are Not Women"

Epilogue

Civilization and its Malcontents

Keywords

• homicide
• justice
• poverty
• shame
• structural violence
• violence
• crime