Theoretical Criminology

This article moves forward on recent studies on historical trends in violence. Whereas many studies agree that levels of interpersonal violence have subsided since the late Middle Ages, some have found periods of strong increases within this general decline. Building on Norbert Elias’s civilizing thesis, this article proposes to incorporate a greater degree of attention to economic processes. Using illustrative evidence from Western Europe and the USA, this article demonstrates how within the overall decline of violence, cycles of increasing and decreasing violence can be tied to the development of both state formation and the growth of a world economic system.

Questionable tactics in America’s war on terror continue to undergo scrutiny due to their threats to human rights, chief among them ‘enhanced’ interrogation and torture. Indeed, a growing chorus of criticism has been leveled at the political, legal, and ethical considerations of those policies and practices. Scholars, nonetheless, have neglected other important aspects of the controversy, for instance, the extent to which modern torture has been influenced by ‘scientific’ claims involving the effectiveness and appropriateness of certain procedures. Filling the void, this analysis explores the invention of modern torture as it draws on behavioral and psychological research in developing a new paradigm for pain. Delving into the assertions of ‘enhanced’ techniques, the critique focuses on a science studies perspective aimed at deciphering the allure of science in policing as well as in the war on terror. Such ‘scientification’, as discussed herein, reinforces the illusion that the state’s capacity to unveil the truth is infallible.