Crime, culture or war? Justifying military responses to violence against civilians

Sine Vorland Holen (2024) Acta Sociologica. Online first Abstract. Interpreting violence against civilians is necessary for eliciting appropriate protection responses, yet the structuration processes through which military personnel make sense of observed violence are underexplored. This article draws on the experiences of Norwegian military officers, applying Boltanski and Thévenot's theory of justification to investigate how officers discern violence targeting unarmed individuals and justi...