[Acts of violence from point of view of the criminologist]

Assaultive offences continue to occupy a major share of the interest of criminologists and of the attention of the public. They are defined by the use, or the threat of use of force on a victim by an offender. The paper reviews basic definitions, methods of measuring assaultive crime, and recent phenomenological patterning. Different socio-economic variables are discussed, such as age and sex, urbanization and social class, race, victim-offender relationships, family factors. A brief analysis is presented of child abuse. Various theories have been presented, with different interpretative and explanatory focuses. They are summarized by the Authors under the following headings: a) Barrier theories b) Theories of inevitability c) "Bad influence" theories d) Culture theories. A few cross-cultural examples are given, from existing studies. The postulates of cultural theories are presented, with suggestions for further research.