Course
Description 
Violence occupies a paradoxical place in western societies. It is both censured and legitimated. It evokes horror and yet acts of violence appear on a routine basis in many forms of entertainment, including television programmes for children. Drawing on writings from a variety of intellectual traditions this paper explores the contested nature of violence through an examination of a number of contemporary debates about the causes, agents, consequences, as well responses to and
interventions in, incidents of ‘ordinary’ and sometimes everyday, interpersonal violence.
Information Literacy Information Literacy is the set of intellectual capabilities, knowledge and skills needed to use information at a level appropriate to the position, work
environment, and discipline of the individual and the ability to continue to develop these skills into the future, as explained in The University of Auckland information literacy policy.
Exam Papers
Previous exam papers for this course are available on the Exam Database.
Recommended
Reading
Books in the Short Loan Collection can be found using the Course Materials list.
Reference Books
You can use reference books to get an introduction to a subject or to look up the definition of a word. Reference books include things such as specialised dictionaries and encyclopedias. They are an excellent place to start your research. You should then go on to read more in-depth journal articles and books.
- Bruce, Steve and Steven Yearley. 2006. The Sage Dictionary of Sociology. London: SAGE.
General Library Arts Reference 301.03 B88
- Crossley, Nick. 2005. Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory. London: SAGE.
General Library and Short Loan Collection 301.01 C951
- Hickey, Eric, ed. 2003. Encyclopedia of Murder & Violent Crime. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
- Kurtz, Lester R. and Jennifer E. Turpin, eds. 1999. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict. San Diego: Academic Press.
General Library Arts Reference 303.603 K96
- Osborne, Richard. 2002. Megawords: 200 Terms You Really Need to Know. London: SAGE.
General Library Arts Reference 306.42 O81
- Newton, David E. 1996. Violence and the Media: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio.
General Library Arts Reference 303.6 N56
- Ponzetti James J., ed. 2003. International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference.
General Library Arts Reference 306.803 L66 2003
- Renzetti, Claire M. and Jeffrey L. Edleson, eds. 2008. Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- Ritzer, George, ed. 2007. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Malden: Blackwell.
General Library Arts Reference 301.03 R61
- Scott, John and Gordon Marshall, eds. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
General Library Arts Reference 301.03 C74 2005
- Smith, Merril D., ed. 2004. Encyclopedia of Rape. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
General Library Arts Reference 362.88303 S63
- Credo Reference
An online quick reference collection containing more than 1,000,000 entries and 5,000 images. It comprises dictionaries, directories and encyclopaedias from publishers such as Bloomsbury, Harper Collins, Penguin, Routledge, and Thames & Hudson.
- Oxford Reference Online
Online reference books from Oxford University Press
A couple of useful books for identifying key words and search terms:
- Knapp, Sarah. 2000. The Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms: A Guide for Natural Language Computer Searching. Phoenix: Oryx Press.
General Library Science Reference 025.49 K67 2000
- Booth, Barbara. 1999. Thesaurus of Sociological Indexing Terms. Bethesda, Md.: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts.
General Library Arts Reference 301.03 S67 1999
Voyager Searches
Keyword Searches
Tips for Keyword searching:
- Use truncation symbols to find variant word endings: Search for
stigma? to find stigma, stigmas, stigmatised, etc.
- Search for variant spellings: victimisation or victimization
- Search for phrases in quotation marks: "domestic violence"
- Search for synonyms and related terms: domestic or family
Examples of Keyword Boolean Searches
"domestic violence" or "family violence"
(domestic or family) and violence
stigma
and victim?
stigma?
and (victim? or crim?)
Subject Heading Searches
Click on the subjects below to display an index of headings which link to lists of books and journals.
If there are many titles under a subject you may prefer to sort the results by date, with the most recent publications first. To do this, click on the down arrow by 'Sort by:' and select 'Latest date first'.
Subject headings do not always use the same terminology that we use in
everyday conversation, e.g. the term "acquaintance rape" is
used instead of "date rape".
Journals
These are some of the journals relating to the sociology of violence. Click on the journal title to see the Voyager record; that will show you the location of print copies in the Library, and links to e-journals available.
Have a look through recent issues of these journals to see the published results of current research. An excellent source for review articles is:
Databases
To find more information on a topic, a good place to start is a database that indexes the articles in journals. More databases are listed on the Sociology resource pages.
- Sociological Abstracts An index with abstracts from almost 2000 social science journals.
-
FindNZarticles Includes Index New Zealand INNZ (an index with abstracts from 300 New Zealand journals, magazines and newspapers) plus other indexes of New Zealand newspapers and book chapters.
- Google Scholar
Use the Library's link to Google Scholar to enable access to full-text journals.
Referencing and Plagiarism
The Sociology Referencing Guide is available on the Department's website.
The Chicago Manual of Style Online
The Chicago Manual of Style. 2003. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
There are several copies are available in the Library and Short Loan Collection (Call number 808.027 C53 2003)
Honesty and integrity are valued in all academic activities at The University of Auckland. This website provides information about the key principles and practices underlying academic honesty, and advice and resources: Academic Honesty and Plagiarism.
Referen©ite Academic referencing resource
The EndNote program can help you manage your list of references. The program is available on most University computers and you can buy your own copy for $5 from the IC HelpDesk (Level 2, Kate Edger Information Commons). You can get more help with EndNote at the Library training course.
FAQs
How can I get the full text of an article if it is not available in the database I am searching?
Some databases such as Sociological Abstracts do not include links to the full text of the article. Use the  button to find if we have the journal available online or to search The Catalogue for the hard-copy journal in the Library. Index New Zealand does not have a Find Full Text button, so you must search Voyager yourself to find the journal titles.
Where can I go for more help?
Student Learning Centre
|