Are We Living in a More Violent Society?: A Socio-Historical Analysis of Interpersonal Violence in France, 1970s–Present

摘要

This text suggests a general sociological model to interpret the development of violent behaviours in interpersonal relationships, based on the French case. An original synthesis of various types of data is used: police and judicial statistics, victimization and self-reported surveys, demographic and socio-economic data. The model links together five processes at work in French society: a societal process of pacification, a political and legal process of criminalization, a process of judiciarization of everyday life conflicts, a socio-economic process of competition for consumer goods, and a process of economic, social and spatial segregation. This model also attempts to link many theoretical contributions that have shaped the history of sociology and criminology.