This book begins with the assumption that a deep understanding of the origins of psychopathology, human dysfunction, and their course is fundamental to the quest for the good society, and perhaps, even to our survival as a species. The studies presented compare prevalences and risk factors across time and place, and make use of concepts and methods from history, geography, sociology, anthropology, economics, psychology, social and medical services research, social policy, psychiatry, and epidemiology. Collectively, they illustrate the methods and methodological difficulties involved in the effort to achieve a deep understanding and provide important insights into the disorders and dysfunctions that are investigated.

This book begins with the assumption that a deep understanding of the origins of psychopathology, human dysfunction, and their course is fundamental to the quest for the good society, and perhaps, even to our survival as a species. The studies presented compare prevalences and risk factors across time and place, and make use of concepts and methods from history, geography, sociology, anthropology, economics, psychology, social and medical services research, social policy, psychiatry, and epidemiology. Collectively, they illustrate the methods and methodological difficulties involved in the effort to achieve a deep understanding and provide important insights into the disorders and dysfunctions that are investigated.

Edited and written by true leaders in the field, Psychopathology provides comprehensive coverage of adult psychopathology, including an overview of the topic in the context of the DSM. Individual chapters cover the history, theory, and assessment of Axis I and Axis II adult disorders such as panic disorder, social anxiety, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder.

The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention is the most reliable and the only comprehensive source on research and experience on the prevention of crime in the United States and across the Western world.

Public and academic interest in youth and community violence has grown with school shootings, horrific cases of child abuse, and reports of domestic abuse becoming regular news features. Research on interpersonal violence has had a corresponding progression, but there is a tendency by researchers to examine these issues at the individual level, rather than considering the micro- and macro-level causes, correlates, and outcomes for those affected directly and indirectly by violence. Edited by four leading violence researchers, Violence in Context takes the more systemic view, offering a critical appraisal of research and theory that focuses on violence in youth, families, and communities. Authors investigate the ways in which violence is defined and understood, how risk and protective factors promote and inhibit violence in the groups most responsible for the socialization of youth, and how violence and related behaviors differ by gender, race, and ethnicity. A rich analysis of the field familiarizes readers with some of the most compelling approaches to violence prevention, including interventions that begin at infancy with families at risk. Every chapter examines the latest research on violence prevention, with a goal of moving towards the multi-system, integrated intervention models and approaches that will incorporate the social context of violence across settings and population subgroups. The result is a valuable interdisciplinary book for scholars, practitioners, and students that provides a comprehensive overview of published studies, limitations of research findings, and a thoughtful discussion of the ways in which future research can build on what is currently known about the causes, consequences, and prevention of violence in different settings.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on the Prevention of Crime and Violence Among the Mentally III was held in May 1999 in Tuscany, Italy. Participants from 15 countries attended. Since care for persons with mental illness (schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, atypical psychoses) has been deinstitutionalized, some persons with these disorders are committing crimes and serious violence. Consequently, societies around the world are confronted with a new challenge: to provide mental health care and social services to mentally ill persons in a humane way that will prevent illegal behaviours. Research in this field has been dominated by investigations designed to improve clinicians' accuracy in predicting violent behaviours, with little attention focused on the organization and implemen tation of treatments. The premise of the Advanced Study Institute was that treatments must have em pirically proven efficacy. Both professional ethics and public accountability require empirical evidence that each treatment will alleviate the problem that it targets. However, despite the fact that Western industrial societies provide treatment for mentally ill persons who have offended, there is a very limited base of knowledge on what constitutes effective treatment and how such treatments should be organized and delivered. The Advanced Study Institute was an attempt to stimulate and encour age research that will extend this knowledge base. The goals were to review what is known about mentally ill offenders and about effective treatments for them, and to provide a framework for the orientation of future investigations designed to improve treatment efficacy.

Human progress is heading toward collapse. There are converging ecological crises looming on the horizon: climate change, peak oil, water shortages, fish depletion and food scarcities. The world is on a collision course against the limits of the ecosystem. Modern societies are consuming, polluting and growing as if there is no tomorrow. Indeed, there may not be one. In Progress or Collapse, Roberto De Vogli guides us through the multiple converging global crises of economic progress. He explores the connections between the environmental crisis and the psychological, social, cultural, political and economic emergencies affecting modern societies. It is not a coincidence, the author argues, that global ecological destruction is occurring in tandem with other crises: rising mental disorders, mindless consumerism, rampant conformism, status competition, civic disengagement, startling social inequalities, global financial instability, and widespread political impasse. In this hard-hitting analysis, Roberto De Vogli identifies the root cause of all these symptoms of societal breakdown: neoliberalism, defined as market greed. He argues that in recent decades, modern societies have been dominated by a suicidal economic doctrine based on two articles of faith: the greed creed and the market God. The greed creed states that people are nothing but selfish profiteers in a perpetual search for status and wealth. The market God is the belief that all societal and human affairs are best regulated as market exchanges. What is to be done? Can we stop progress toward collapse? Given the current distribution of power and wealth, and the state of psychological and political inertia in which we are trapped, our chances of redefining progress around alternative values and embracing a new philosophy of life are slim. Yet, the history of human emancipation has often been shaped by giant leaps forward. In the past, civic struggles have overcome "the limits of the possible". Whether this will happen again in the future is the central question of our time. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of ecology, psychology, public health, epidemiology, human development, political philosophy, economics, sociology and politics.

Developmental and life-course criminology aims to provide information about how offending and antisocial behavior develops, about risk and protective factors at different ages, and about the effects of life events on the course of development. This volume advances knowledge about these theories of offender behavior, many of which have been formulated only in the last twenty years. It also integrates knowledge about individual, family, peer, school, neighborhood, community, and situational influences on offender behavior, and combines key elements of earlier theories such as strain, social learning, differential association, and control theory.Contributors Benjamin B. Lahey and Irwin D. Waldman focus on antisocial propensity and the importance of biological and individual factors. Alex R. Piquero and Terrie E. Moffitt distinguish between life-course-persistent and adolescent-limited offenders. David P. Farrington presents the Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) theory, which distinguishes between long-term and short-term influences on antisocial potential. Richard F. Catalano, J. David Hawkins, and their colleagues test the Social Development Model (SDM).Marc Le Blanc proposes an integrated multi-layered control theory, in which criminal behavior depends on bonding to society, psychological development, modeling, and constraints. Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub hypothesize that offending is inhibited by the strength of bonding to family, peers, schools, and later adult social institutions such as marriage and jobs. Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn propose an interactional theory, of antisocial behavior. Per-Olof H. Witkstrom's developmental ecological action theory emphasizes the importance of situational factors: opportunities cause temptation, friction produces provocation, and monitoring and the risk of sanctions have deterrent effects.

Integrated in this book are contributions from leading scientists who have each studied children's adjustment across risks common in contemporary society. Chapters in the first half of the book focus on risks emanating from the family; chapters in the second half focus on risks stemming from the wider community. All contributors have explicitly addressed a common set of core themes, including the criteria they used to judge 'resilience' within particular risk settings, the major factors that predict resilience in these settings; the limits to resilience (vulnerabilities coexisting with manifest success); and directions for interventions. In the concluding chapter, the editor integrates evidence presented through all preceding chapters to distill (a) substantive considerations for future research, and (b) salient directions for interventions and social policies, based on accumulated research knowledge.

Global mental health is an emerging area of focus that requires a comprehensive understanding of sociocultural factors across various contexts. Future research should explore how globalized culture intersects with local traditions, beliefs, and practices, shaping the understanding and expression of psychopathology. It is essential to examine how international migration, refugee experiences, and transnationalism impact mental health systematically. Researchers should prioritize cross-cultural studies that investigate how cultural dislocation affects psychological well-being and contributes to the emergence of specific psychopathological symptoms. Investigating mental health within different cultural frameworks will promote culturally sensitive assessment tools and interventions. Furthermore, disparities in mental health outcomes among marginalized populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries, merit further scrutiny to inform policy and practice.