The recent shootings at Virginia Tech brought issues surrounding campus violence to the forefront once again. But campuses have always had problems with stalking, sexual harassment, bullying, rape, robbery, burglary, and intimate partner violence, among other things. In fact, the incidence rates of campus violence are quite startling. For example, the incidence of sexual harassment among undergraduate students ranges between 20 and 80 percent each year. Between 8 and 15 percent of college women say they have been raped. And battering occurs in up to a third of all couples in dating relationships in the U.S. Fortunately, there are solutions to the problem of campus violence. In Understanding and Preventing Campus Violence, Michele Paludi and a host of experts detail preventive procedures as well as methods to stay safer on campus. In Understanding and Preventing Campus Violence, experts in law, HR/employment policy, psychology, criminal justice, and education offer sage, real-world advice to campus administrators, parents, students and employees on how to prevent and manage campus violence. It offers insights into the reasons behind violent acts, prevention techniques, methods students can use to protect themselves, and therapeutic techniques for the following types of violence: -Bullying -Sexual harassment -Cyberstalking and cyberharassment -Intimate partner violence -Rape -Homicide -Robberies and other violent crimes The book also addresses the legal responsibilities of schools, as well as the psychological fallout on people in the aftermath of violence. Featuring interviews with student-victims, and providing sample policies and training programs, Understanding and Preventing Campus Violence will help students learn to spot situations of potential violence, help teachers use classroom excercises to raise awareness and prevent future violence, and help college administrators and managers learn to safeguard the people and assets in their care.

This book examines the contemporary rise in community violence across the United States and globally from sociological and criminological perspectives. It comprehensively investigates police response to criminal incidents, engagements with criminal suspects, use of force by law enforcement, and crime control measures implemented or recommended to initiate effective crime control measures so that the unwanted rise of violence and serious crime can again be contained. The primary audience for the book will be upper level undergraduate and graduate level students, criminal justice and law enforcement practitioners, government policy makers, community advocates, and researchers in sociology, criminology, homeland security, criminal justice, public administration, and political science.

By conservative estimates, more than 16,000 violent crimes are committed or attempted every day in the United States. Violence involves many factors and spurs many viewpoints, and this diversity impedes our efforts to make the nation safer. Now a landmark volume from the National Research Council presents the first comprehensive, readable synthesis of America's experience of violence-offering a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and preventing interpersonal violence and its consequences. Understanding and Preventing Violence provides the most complete, up-to-date responses available to these fundamental questions: How much violence occurs in America? How do different processes-biological, psychosocial, situational, and social-interact to determine violence levels? What preventive strategies are suggested by our current knowledge of violence? What are the most critical research needs? Understanding and Preventing Violence explores the complexity of violent behavior in our society and puts forth a new framework for analyzing risk factors for violent events. From this framework the authors identify a number of "triggering" events, situational elements, and predisposing factors to violence-as well as many promising approaches to intervention. Leading authorities explore such diverse but related topics as crime statistics; biological influences on violent behavior; the prison population explosion; developmental and public health perspectives on violence; violence in families; and the relationship between violence and race, ethnicity, poverty, guns, alcohol, and drugs. Using four case studies, the volume reports on the role of evaluation in violence prevention policy. It also assesses current federal support for violence research and offers specific science policy recommendations. This breakthrough book will be a key resource for policymakers in criminal and juvenile justice, law enforcement authorities, criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, public health professionals, researchers, faculty, students, and anyone interested in understanding and preventing violence.

Beyond Violence: A Prevention Program for Women is a forty-hour, evidence-based, gender-responsive, trauma-informed treatment program specifically developed for women who have committed a violent crime and are incarcerated. This program offers counselors, mental health professionals, and program administrators the tools they need to implement a gender-responsive, trauma-informed treatment program within the criminal justice system. This Participant Workbook helps participants understand the relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; learn new skills, including communication, conflict resolution, decision making, and calming soothing techniques; and become part of a group of women working to create a less violent world.

What impels human beings to harm others -- family members or strangers? And how can these impulses and actions be prevented or controlled? Heightened public awareness of, and concern about, what is widely perceived as a recent explosion of violence -- on a spectrum from domestic abuse to street crime -- has motivated behavioral and social scientists to cast new light on old questions. Many hypotheses have been offered. This volume sorts, structures, and evaluates them.The author draws on contemporary research and theory in varied fields--sociology, clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, neuropsychology, behavioral genetics, child development, and education--to present a uniquely balanced, integrated, and readable summary of what we currently know about the causes and effects of violence. Throughout, she emphasizes the necessity of distinguishing among different types of violent behavior and of realizing that nature and nurture interact in human development. Controversial issues such as physical punishment and violent television programming receive special attention making this volume an important resource for all those concerned with violent offenders and their victims -- and for their students and trainees.In this third edition of Understanding Violence, author Elizabeth Kandel Englander draws on contemporary research and theory in varied fields to present a uniquely balanced, integrated, and readable summary of what we currently know about the causes and effects of violence, particularly its effect on children. The goal of this textbook is to give a critical review of the most relevant and important areas of research on street and family violence, examining why it is that people become violent. Between 1994 and 2004 the United States benefited from a dramatic decline in rates of violent crime. However, as the economy has weakened in recent years and tougher times have returned, the crime rate has shown signs of a modest

The shooting at Columbine High School riveted national attention on violence in the nation's schools. This dramatic example signaled an implicit and growing fear that these events would continue to occurâ€"and even escalate in scale and severity. How do we make sense of the tragedy of a school shooting or even draw objective conclusions from these incidents? Deadly Lessons is the outcome of the National Research Council's unique effort to glean lessons from six case studies of lethal student violence. These are powerful stories of parents and teachers and troubled youths, presenting the tragic complexity of the young shooter's social and personal circumstances in rich detail. The cases point to possible causes of violence and suggest where interventions may be most effective. Readers will come away with a better understanding of the potential threat, how violence might be prevented, and how healing might be promoted in affected communities. For each case study, Deadly Lessons relates events leading up to the violence, provides quotes from personal interviews about the incident, and explores the impact on the community. The case studies center on: Two separate incidents in East New York in which three students were killed and a teacher was seriously wounded. A shooting on the south side of Chicago in which one youth was killed and two wounded. A shooting into a prayer group at a Kentucky high school in which three students were killed. The killing of four students and a teacher and the wounding of 10 others at an Arkansas middle school. The shooting of a popular science teacher by a teenager in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. A suspected copycat of Columbine in which six students were wounded in Georgia. For everyone who puzzles over these terrible incidents, Deadly Lessons offers a fresh perspective on the most fundamental of questions: Why?

This insightful volume integrates criminological theories, prevention science, and empirical findings to create an up-to-date survey of crime prevention research and strategies. Its interdisciplinary perspective expands on our knowledge of risk factors to isolate the malleable mechanisms that produce criminal outcomes, and can therefore be targeted for intervention. In addition, the text identifies developmental, lifespan, and social areas for effective intervention. Reviews of family-, community-, and criminal justice-based crime prevention approaches not only detail a wide gamut of successful techniques, but also provide evidence for why they succeed. And as an extra research dimension, the book’s chapters on methodological issues and challenges uncover rich possibilities for the next generation of crime prevention studies. Included in the coverage: Integrating criminology and prevention research Social disorganization theory: its history and relevance to crime prevention Research designs in crime and violence prevention Macro- and micro-approaches to crime prevention and intervention programs Implications of life course: approaches for prevention science Promising avenues for prevention, including confronting sexual victimization on college campuses Spotlighting current progress and continuing evolution of the field, Preventing Crime and Violence will enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, academicians, and policymakers in public health, prevention science, criminology, and criminal justice, as well as students interested in criminology and criminal justice.

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.

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Honor-based violence (HBV) is a crime committed to protect or defend the honor of a family and/or a community. It is usually triggered by the victim‘s behavior, which the family and/or community regards as causing offense or dishonor. HBV has existed for thousands of years but has only very recently become a focus of law enforcement, policy makers,