Youth Violence

Prevention, Intervention, and Social Policy

Edited by Daniel J. Flannery, Ph.D., and C. Ronald Huff, M.D.

1999
344 Pages
Editorial Reviews

ISBN 978-0-88048-809-9
Item #8809

Hardcover

Description
Contents
Editorial Reviews
About the Authors

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.

Part I: Etiology and Prevention.
Youth violence prevention, intervention, and social policy: an overview. Two sides of the coin: multi-level prevention and intervention to reduce youth violent behavior. Stability and continuity of aggression from early childhood to young adulthood.
Part II: Exposure.
Principles of military combat stress treatment related to children in high-risk environments. Organization of exposure to violence among urban adolescents: clinical, prevention and research implications.
Part III: Gender, Gangs, and Guns.
Youth gangs, drugs, and socioeconomic isolation. Girls and violence: an overview. Role of firearms in youth violence.
Part IV: Interventions.
Family factors and youth violence. Teaching prosocial behavior to antisocial youth. Psychopharmacological and neurobiological issues in the treatment of violent youth.
Part V: Conclusions.
Implications for prevention, intervention, and social policy with violent youth. Index.

Daniel J. Flannery, Ph.D., is Director of the Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence and Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Studies at Kent State University . He is also a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University Hospitals of Cleveland.

C. Ronald Huff, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy and Management at The Ohio State University. He is author of ten books, including Gangs in America and more than 60 journal articles and book chapters.

This is a timely book. . . . The information presented here will be helpful to both novice and experienced clinician-researchers, but it deserves to reach beyond them to a broader audience, including that of policy makers.—Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health

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

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