From the Foreward: Each chapter of this work is in truth a separate essay or article in which an author distinguished in his field treats a different aspect or manifestation of violence in human society. I doubt whether so complete a treatise in so short a compass has been previously attempted. The reader will be left in no doubt when he reflects on what he has read that violence is, and always has been, a feature or a threat in human society- and will remain so. The reason why this must be so is made plain in the early chapters. Violent behaviour is a display of man”s aggressive instinct: without that instinct, which he (and she) shares with the rest of the animal kingdom, the human species would not survive. First published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.