The Phenomenon of State Violence in the Student Community: The Views of Greek University Students

Abstract

By its nature, the modern nation - state obtains the monopoly of the legitimate authority and the institutionalized violence. The relations of the authority with its citizens are determined by specific regulations and rules, which are supposed to reflect the “social contract”.  However, the use of state violence in modern societies is being increased during the periods of economic and political crisis. Thus, in Greece during the years of crisis the use of violence by the state mechanisms is an everyday phenomenon.  Our research analyzing the attitude of Greek university students towards state violence in Greece.  Regarding methodology, two methodological tools were used, meeting the requirements of the research: a questionnaire with closed questions, in order to quantitatively investigate the attitudes of students regarding various issues, with a 5/point scale Likert. Moreover, a quantitative content analysis was used, investigating a basically qualitative research material, which was derived from the responses to open-ended questions, concerning the perceptions of the university students towards the topic of state violence.