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In times of conflict, the meaning of words tends to fluctuate. For example, the word "violence" traditionally refers to physical force against people or property. However, some have expanded the term "violence" to include non-force (e.g., speech). Conversely, others have actively avoided the "violence" label to describe clear instances of force (e.g., property destruction). When the definitions of concepts expand and contract, semantic divergence – the degree of disagreement over the meaning of words – increases. Drawing on the work of Donald Black, we derive a partial explanation for the semantic divergence of "violence" labeling in cultural conflicts. First, at the macro-level, as social intimacy and inequality have declined over the past few hundred years, violence has become increasingly stigmatized, rendering an allegation of "violence" a potentially powerful weapon for deployment against cultural opponents. Second, at the case-level, social distance and partisanship, fostered by the internet, combine to produce social polarization – factions internally close but externally distant – of which a predictable result is the semantic divergence of "violence." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01258.x Byline: Mark Cooney (1) Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Sociology, University of Georgia Article History: (Date accepted: May 2009) Article note: email: mcooney@uga.edu

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01252.x Byline: Mark Cooney (1) Keywords: Ethnic conflict; immigration; Ireland; conflict management; pure sociology Abstract: Abstract Despite growing awareness of the limitations of group-level analyses in ethnic studies, research on ethnic conflict has paid virtually no systematic attention to variation at the individual or micro level. Addressing that gap, the present paper draws upon data from interviews conducted with members of two broadly-defined categories recently arrived in the Republic of Ireland, Muslims and Nigerians. Results indicate that while members of both immigrant categories experience a good deal of ethnic conflict or hostility, such conflict is rarely collective and invariably varies across individuals. The research data are consistent with Donald Black's theory of moralism. Black's theory, based on his theoretical system known as pure sociology, predicts that ethnic hostility increases with the social inferiority and cultural distance of the immigrant, and that higher status immigrants are more assertive in responding to hostility, though they experience less of it (the status paradox). Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Sociology, University of Georgia Article History: (Date accepted: May 2009) Article note: email: mcooney@uga.edu

Research describes the flash vacuum pyrolysis of methoxy-substituted beta-O-4 lignin compounds at 500 C, which involves free-radical reactions, molecular rearrangements, and elimination reactions. Data discuss the reactions with model lignin compounds.

1H-Cyclopropa[b]naphthalene is converted into novel polar olefins 15-19 via reaction of the 1,1-disilyl with anthrone-like ketones. The alkenes so formed are crystalline, polar compounds that range in color from yellow to magenta. Solutions of the 10,10-dimethylanthrylidene 15, the xanthenylidene 16, and N-methylacrydinylidene 18 fluoresce; parent anthrone 19 likely phosphoresces. X-ray crystal structure determinations are reported for 15, 18, and the thioxanthenylidene 17. Theoretical studies using ab initio calculations at the HF/6-31G level have been performed to provide assessments of the structures, charge distributions, and dipole moments of 15-19.

A new synthetic methodology enables the preparation of the permethylated and perspirocycloproponated cyclotetradeca-1,3,6,9,12-pentayne. X-ray crystallographic and spectroscopic studies show that in the permethylated pentayne, compression of the internal C-C-C bond angles at the saturated carbon atoms surrounding the diyne increases the through-space Pi-orbital interactions, resulting in a bathochromic shift. Wider internal C-C-C band angles of perspirocyclopropanated pentayne decrease the through-space Pi-orbital interaction, while spirocyclopropanation increases the through-bond Pi-orbital interactions.

The authors in the symposium discuss the influence of Donald Black's 'The Behavior of Law' on law, criminology, and social life. Topics include social control, morals, and human behavior.

Reviewer: MARK Cooney, University of Georgia This book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on conflict management, providing a detailed ethnographic account of the handling of land disputes [...]

Spectroscopic methods help analyze the structure and rearrangements in an oxaspiropentene derivative, 3',3'-diphenylspiro(1H-cyclo-propa(b)naphthalene-1, 2'-oxirane). Under acidic conditions, this epoxide rearranges to a diol. Use of labeled dimethyldioxirane as an oxygen atom transfer reagent enables the characterization of this derivative.

Purpose -- Drawing on the theoretical system known as pure sociology, this chapter presents a theory of the transition from ordinary citizen to dedicated terrorist. Methodology/approach -- We support our argument with data drawn from the diverse literature on terrorist affiliation, with particular emphasis on qualitative investigations into the background of individual terrorists. Findings -- The transition from citizen to terrorist represents a dramatic increase in commitment to a moral cause, or partisanship. Such commitment is a product of a specific social geometry: social closeness to a powerful organization and social distance from the enemy. That geometry is triggered by a movement of social time entailing loss and proceeds via gravitational attraction. If uninterrupted, the process reverses social time, resulting in a highly partisan geometry that calls forth risky sacrifice for the cause and severe violence toward enemy civilians. Originality/value -- Our theory builds upon network explanations of the transition to terrorism but goes beyond them in three ways: (1) it provides an explanation of the initial drift into terrorist networks; (2) it does not invoke psychology, purposes or other subjective mental states of the actors; and (3) it situates the transition to terrorism within a general theory of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence is a dynamic event, not a static state. The cause of violence, therefore, cannot lie in static variables such as individual propensities (eg self-control) or aggregate properties (eg inequality). But what changes cause violence? A new theory developed by Donald Black traces violent acts to movements of social time. Social time moves when actors' statuses rise or fall (vertical time), when relationships increase or decrease in intimacy (relational time), and when cultural diversity expands or contracts (cultural time). The present paper applies the new theory to one particular type of violence -- that committed in the name of family honour. Typically perpetrated by men against their female relatives, family honour violence is triggered by several movements of social time, but particularly vertical time, in the form of challenges from below by women seeking to make independent lifestyle decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occurring in a broad range of non-western and western countries, violence committed against women in the name of family honor has been viewed in several ways, including as a crime, as gendered violence, or as a violation of human rights. But from a purely explanatory point of view, family honor violence is most profitably viewed as a type of social control, specifically penal social control. As punishment, honor violence appears to obey the same principles as other forms of punishment. Drawing on the theoretical strategy of pure sociology, the present article highlights two such principles: punishment increases with the social distance and social inferiority of the offender. These twin principles help to explain a broad range of facts about when and where family honor violence will occur, and how severe – in particular, how lethal – it will be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various U.S. court cases wherein the poor writing style of a lawyer resulted to the loss of cases. It includes poor writing styles of lawyers on a range of documents such as pleadings, employment contracts, leases, and insurance policies. Some of the U.S. court cases mentioned includes Nicosia vs. Wakefern Food Corp. in New Jersey Supreme Court, Peabody vs. Griggs in the U.S. District Court, and Horton vs. Alexander in Alabama Supreme Court.

Greenberg's (2003) Comment fails to address the substance or spirit of "The Privatization of Violence." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norbert Elias's (1939) work on "the civilizing process" highlighted the long-term decline in violence within Western societies. A substantial amount of more recent anthropological and historical evidence suggests that violence has evolved not just quantitatively but qualitatively as well. In particular, the social characteristics of the parties to violence have changed over time. Drawing on Donald Black's (1976, 1993a) theoretical ideas on conflict management, the present paper proposes that as intimate social ties weakened and the state strengthened, collective and nonintimate forms of (nonpolitical) violence declined significantly. Consequently, violence increasingly became less public, more private. Pockets of residual public violence can, however, still be found within modern state societies. Privatization varies, then, across time and social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the validity of a theory presented in the book The Behavior of Law, by Donald Black. The book presents the only general extant sociological theory of an ancient and important social institution. Yet it has been largely neglected. The problem is not validity. A broad array of data support the theory. Most of the data are, however, unfamiliar and come wrapped in a strange set of ideas, none of which may seem all that momentous. Put them together in a single package, however, and they meet with resistance ranging from puzzlement to hostility. Surely the resistance can not continue forever. One impetus to greater recognition would be the development of research closer in style to orthodox sociology, such as the construction of empirical tests to collect quantitative data that measure the theory's variables adequately and that lend themselves to appropriate statistical analysis. In sum, the theory does not fail the discipline, the discipline fails the theory. Sociology is not the general science of social life it promised to be when young. In middle age, it has settled for something much less ambitious, content to pursue either the statistical analysis or humanistic interpretation of modernity.

Although typologies of violence have become more common, relatively little attention has been given to Donald Black's (1983) distinction between moralistic and predatory violence. Moralistic violence is rooted in conflict; predatory violence is rooted in exploitation. We elaborate Black's typology and show how it is similar to, but distinct from, other typologies of violence. We also address the criteria by which typologies of any kind might be judged. Borrowing from the literatures on typologies and on standards of scientific theory, we argue that explanatory typologies should be evaluated according to four criteria: the degree to which they are powerful, theoretical, general, and parsimonious. Applying the criteria to Black's typology, we argue that the distinction between moralistic and predatory violence is an important contribution to the arsenal of the student of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminological research consistently shows that interpersonal homicide is largely confined to low-status people. Yet, anthropological and historical materials reveal that in earlier and simpler societies homicide was found throughout the status hierarchy. Using theory developed by Donald Black, I argue that a critical factor in the decline of lethal conflict among social elites is the increased availability of legal means of handling conflict. An implication is that since a focus on modern societies and their developed legal systems yields a limited and even distorted empirical picture of lethal violence, criminologists should strive to formulate theories that are cross-cultural and historical in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesizes the permealated and perspirocyclopropanated cyclotetradeca-1,3,6,9,12-pentaynes. Compression of the internal C-C-C bond angles at the saturated carbon atoms flanking the diyne enhances the through-space pi-orbital interactions and causes a bathochromic shift in the long wavelength UV absorption maximum relative to that of reference compounds.

The article reviews the controversial question whether police in the United States discriminate on racial grounds in making arrests. While the evidence initially appears confusing, even contradictory, closer analysis reveals a number of latent patterns. These patterns are also found in other areas of legal life. This discussion places the research literature within the more general sociological theory of law and, thereby, seeks to uncover the social logic, which governs the arrest behavior of police officers in matters of race. The standard definition of arrest is used in this article namely, the taking of a suspect to a police station. The concept of racial discrimination, which is discussed at more length below, is defined in terms of the differential disposition of cases by the police solely on the basis of the race of the parties. This is intended as a sociological definition only. A finding of discrimination in the text therefore does not necessarily imply that the police have violated any legal standards. Finally, although occasional reference is made to other ethnic groups.