Jörn Ahrens, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany Werner Binder, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania, USA Marco Gerster, Konstanz University, Germany Bernhard Giesen, Konstanz University, Germany Michael Günter, Klinikum Stuttgart, Germany Jack Katz, University of California Los Angeles, USA Jan Klabbers, University of Helsinki, Finland Peter Klimczak, Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany Steffen Krämer, Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany Anne Nassauer, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Christer Petersen, Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany Sveinung Sandberg, University of Oslo, Norway Ferdinand Sutterlüty, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany Annette Vowinckel, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany Daniel Ziegler, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany

• 1. Introduction; Marco Gerster, Steffen Kramer and Daniel Ziegler PART I. DYNAMICS OF EXCESS 2. Emotional Dynamics of Violent Situations; Randall Collins 3. Forward Panic and Police Riots; Anne Nassauer 4. What the Situation Explains: On Riotous Violence; Ferdinand Sutterluty 5. Violence and Emotion; Bernhard Giesen 6. Neo-Fascist Heroes: Group Identity and Idealisation of the Aggressor in Violent Right-wing Adolescents; Michael Gunter 7. Intimate Massacres: Next Steps Toward a Causal Explanation; Jack Katz PART II. DISCOURSE AND IMAGINATION 8. German Rampage: Social Discourse and the Emergence of a Disturbing Phenomenon; Jorn Ahrens 9. Amok - Framing Discourses on Political Violence by Means of Symbolic Logic; Peter Klimczak and Christer Petersen 10. Terrorism as Cultural Bricolage - The Case of Anders Behring Breivik; Sveinung Sandberg 11. Tales of Abuse and Torture. The Narrative Framing of the Abu Ghraib Photographs; Werner Binder 12. The (Relative) Absence of Torture in Documentary Photography; Annette Vowinckel 13. Off Limits? International Law and the Excessive Use of Force; Jan Klabbers

'In documenting just how extreme violence has its origins in the expressive, emotive and symbolic this impressive collection decisively moves research forward. Individually the essays interrogate the situational, personal, and shared discursive contexts through which agents arrive at interpretations; read together they hint a synthesis might be just around the corner.' - Philip Smith, Yale University, USA, author of Why War? and Punishment and Culture