Youth Violence

This valuable collection of chapters by leading researchers is especially noteworthy for linking scholarly knowledge about the fundamental causes of youth violence with practical advice about effective prevention programs. It is extremely wide-ranging, covering biological, psychological, and sociological topics; development and family factors; gangs, guns, and drugs; and public health approaches. David P. Farrington, Ph.D, Professor of Psychological Criminology, Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom Youth Violence: Prevention, Intervention, and Social Policy is an excellent volume that stretches the reader to think creatively and constructively about prevention and intervention efforts regarding violence prevention. This book provides education for clinicians, practitioners, and interventionists as well as a much needed 'wake-up call' for politicians and policy makers. It is time to recognize that the problem of youth violence must be addressed through prevention strategies. After the fact intervention and criminal justice approaches alone, while needed, will not solve this problem. The editors have done a masterful job in brining together important perspectives for understanding, and potential approaches for addressing the frightening and growing problem of youth violence. Joy D. Osofsky, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Director, Violence Intervention Program for Children and Families, New Orleans, Louisiana

This is a resource for dealing with both perpetrators and victims of violence and understanding the risk factors facing youth. Presenting an assessment of effects of exposure to violence and the continuity of aggression from early childhood to adulthood, it outlines an integration strategy for public policy towards prevention and treatment.

Scholars, public officials, and reporters have described the violence of this decade as epidemic as the homicide rate has doubled for adolescents between 1984 and 1994. Current policy to combat youth violence is primarily reactive, focusing on increased punishments and spending millions of dollars each year on incarceration.

Providing the latest research on effective prevention and intervention strategies for reducing youth violence, Youth Violence: Prevention, Intervention, and Social Policy is a comprehensive resource for dealing with both perpetrators and victims of violence and understanding the risk factors facing youth.

It covers

• Results from tested prevention and intervention programs including practical descriptions, core components for success, evaluation findings, costs, and lessons learned from actual implementations
• Intervention techniques that teach prosocial behavior to antisocial youth
• Psychopharmacological and neurobiological issues in the treatment of violent youth
• The statistical predictability of adult aggression based on childhood aggression
• The effects of exposure to violence and the continuity of aggression from childhood to adulthood
• An integration strategy for a sound public policy toward prevention and treatment of violent youth

Complete with an extensive reference list of over 700 publications and studies, this practical volume appeals to a wide audience including sociologists, criminologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, educators, counselors, and nurses.