I. General Works

Overviews

The best survey of the problem of violence that we saw was Understanding and Preventing Violence, which was published in 1993 by the National Research Council, a division of the National Academy of Sciences (National Academy Press, paperback, 0309054761, $24.95). The book provides a matrix of both social and individual risk factors for violent behavior, including poverty, illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, gangs, family disorganization and the availability of guns. (It does not include exposure to media violence among the risk factors and devotes only four paragraphs to the question of whether the media cause violence, noting only that scientists do not agree.)

The thesis of Crime is Not the Problem; Lethal Violence in America is that guns are what make the United States more violent than other countries, (Oxford University Press, paperback, 0195131053, $15.95). Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins show that the United States is not more crime-ridden than Europe, but the level of lethal violence is much higher because guns are far more readily available here.

Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist by National Book Award-winner Richard Rhodes is about the work of Lonnie H. Athens, a sociologist whose has specialized in studying the lives of violent criminals. Athens concludes that violent crime is not an impulsive act but the rational response of people who were themselves the victims of violent parents or other authority figures and who have learned that violence works (Knopf, hardcover, 0375402497, $26.95).

Like Athens, Dr. James Gilligan has spent many hours talking to violent criminals about their lives. At one time the director of the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane as well as the director of mental health for the Massachusetts prison system, Gilligan writes in Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes that violent people are those who experience “overwhelming shame in the absence of feelings of either love or guilt” (Vintage, paperback, 0679779124, $14).

In The Culture of Fear; Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More, Sociologist Barry Glassner of the University of Southern California argues that the fear of crime and young criminals has been exaggerated by groups that hope to profit from it in some way (Basic Books, hardcover, 0465014895, $25).

The Biology of Violence

Over the past decade, new scientific techniques have revealed how the brain is shaped by external forces that can predispose people to violence. Debra Niehoff, a neuroscientist who is also a skilled writer, explains these developments for a general audience in her book, The Biology of Violence; How Understanding the Brain, Behavior and the Environment Can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression (Free Press, 0684831325, $25). As her subtitles suggests, Niehoff believes that these discoveries have opened the way to therapies that will help reduce violence.

Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley are also concerned with brain anatomy in Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence (Atlantic Monthly Press, paperback, 0871137348, $15). Morse and Wiley focus on the exposure of infants to violence, illegal drugs, trauma and head injury and emotional deprivation.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Weiner has written about the investigation into the relationship between biology and behavior in Time, Love, Memory; A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior (Knopf, 0679444351, $27.50).

II. Youth Violence

Sissela Bok, a philosopher who is a Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, argues that violence in the media harms children by making them excessively fearful and desensitizing them to the evils of real violence in Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment (Perseus Press, hardcover, 0201489791, $22; paperback, 0738201456, $13).

A contrasting view is offered by novelist (and child psychologist) Jonathan Kellerman, Savage Spawn; Reflections on Violent Children (Ballantine Library of Contemporary Thought, paperback, 0345429397, $10.95. Pairing Mayhem and Savage Spawn would lead to fascinating discussion in any reading group.

Franklin E. Zimring’s 1998 book, American Youth Violence, argues that while there has been an increase in gun-related assaults and murders, the media has exaggerated the threat of youth violence (Oxford University Press, hardcover, 0195121457, $29.95). He also says that it too soon to tell whether youth crime will grow dramatically early in the next century as the proportion of the young increases.

Peter Elikann’s Superpredators: The Demonization of Our Children by the Law also discounts claims about an epidemic of youth violence, (Perseus Books, hardcover, 0306460076, $26.95). He criticizes the rush to try juveniles as adults and outlines a 15-point plan for reducing youth crime, including strengthening family life, reforming the juvenile justice system, restricting access to guns and changing the way violence is portrayed by the media.

Violence in American Schools: A New Perspective is a collection of essays by social scientists who discuss the nature of child and youth violence and describe steps that can be taken by schools and communities to fight the problem, (Cambridge University Press, paperback, 0521644186, $19.95). In their introduction, the editors criticize government for building prisons instead of funding intervention programs that could prevent crime.

Gitta Sereny contends that it is wrong to treat child offenders as adults in Cries Unheard; Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell (Henry Holt, hardcover, 0805060677, $26). Mary Bell was 11 years old when she murdered two young children in Newcastle, England, in 1968. An abused child, Mary was imprisoned for 12 years, receiving psychiatric counseling only after she was moved to an adult prison at the age of 16.

Bernard Lefkowtiz’s Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb examines the case of five high school athletes who were convicted of raping a retarded classmate, demonstrating how even a middle-class neighborhood can produce violence, (Random House, paperback, 0375702695, $15; hardcover, 0520205960, $29.95).

Waging Peace in Our Schools by Linda Lantieri and Janet Patti outlines strategies for conflict resolution that can make schools safer (Beacon, paperback, 0807031178, $13).

Thomas Hine provides a historical perspective on juvenile delinquency in The Rise & Fall of the American Teenager (Bard, hardcover, 0380973588, $24).

III. Autobiography

Gregory Gibson’s Gone Boy: A Walkabout is the story of Gibson’s investigation of the murder of his son, Galen, at Simon’s Rock College in 1992, (Kodansha International, 1568362927, $24). Galen was one of several people shot by a student who fired randomly with a cheap rifle that he has smuggled onto the campus. Gibson wanted to know why the student had committed his crimes; how he got his gun, and why college administrators failed to avert the disaster. The book is a moving depiction of how Gibson conquered the  rage that nearly destroyed him. In the end, he found it possible to embrace the parents of his son’s killer. His investigation also reveals the difficulty of identifying the causes of violence.

Luis Rodriguez’s Always Running; La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA is a powerful portrayal of youth violence, (Touchstone, paperback, 0671882317, $11). Because of its strong appeal to young readers, many teachers have used the book in their classes. Some parents have attempted to ban the book because of its realistic depiction of the violence, sexual conduct and drug use of the teenagers of East Los Angeles.

Things Get Hectic: Teens Write About the Violence That Surrounds Them is a collection of stories written over the last 10 years. They were originally published by Youth Publications in the teen-written magazine, New Youth Connections (Simon and Schuster, paperback, 0684837544, $13).

In Hear These Voices: Youth at the Edge of the Millennium, Anthony Allison persuaded 15 teenagers to describe their lives, including two girls from Belfast and two boys from the South Bronx in New York City who have been deeply affected by violence, (Dutton’s Children’s Books, hardcover, 0525453539, $22.99).

IV. Fiction

In The Reappearance of Sam Webber, Jonathan Scott Fuqua tells the story of an 11-year-old boy in Baltimore who must find a way of surviving after he and his mother are abandoned by his father and forced to move to a poor neighborhood where Sam is threatened by a bully, (Bancroft, 1890862029, hardcover, $23.95).

In Steve Lopez’s Third and Indiana, 14-year-old Gabriel becomes involved in the crack trade, rising from lookout to dealer, (Viking Penguin, paperback, 0140239456, $12.95). He soon faces a showdown with a gang leader who suspects him of skimming money from the profits.

V. Parenting

Milton Chen, The Smart Parent’s Guide to Kids’ TV, KQED Books, paperback, 0912333472, $8.95.

Bev Cobain, When Nothing Matters Anymore: A Survival Guide for Depressed Teens, Free Spirit, paperback, 1575420368, $13.95.

Dr. Janice Cohn, Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children in a Violent World, Longstreet Press, paperback, 1563522764, $15.95.

Allan Creighton, et. al., Helping Teens Stop Violence; A Practical Guide for Counselors, Educators and Parents, Hunter House, paperback, 0897931165, $14.95.

James Garbarino, Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, Free Press, hardcover, 0684859084, $25.

Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson, Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, Ballantine Books, hardcover, 0345424573, $24.95.

William Pollack, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myth of Boyhood, Henry Holt, paperback, 0805061835, $13.95.

Jane Swigart, The Myth of the Perfect Mother; Parenting Without Guilt, Contemporary Books, paperback, 0809229382, $14.95.