The Science Of Violent Behavior Development And Prevention

Find out how 12 World War II babies created a unified understanding on the development and prevention of human violence.

From a team of leading experts comes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of the most current research including the complex issue of violence and violent behavior. The handbook examines a range of theoretical, policy, and research issues and provides a comprehensive overview of aggressive and violent behavior. The breadth of coverage is impressive, ranging from research on biological factors related to violence and behavior-genetics to research on terrrorism and the impact of violence in different cultures. The authors examine violence from international cross-cultural perspectives, with chapters that examine both quantitative and qualitative research. They also look at violence at multiple levels: individual, family, neighborhood, cultural, and across multiple perspectives and systems, including treatment, justice, education, and public health.

This book highlights the developmental changes in aggression and violence during adolescence from a uniquely psychological perspective. Developmental changes and risk factors as direct causes for violence and psychopathy have started to receive increased recognition over the last few years, and in this volume Marcus charts these changes against criminological activity. A meta-theoretical model consisting of developmental, personality, and situational factors which are common, or unique, to each form of aggression and violence are offered with research support. Empirically supported by rigorous data studies, this innovative work goes a long way towards addressing the methods of prevention by which we might lower the frequency and prevalence of aggression and violence. Well-researched and timely in its findings, this book will be of special interest to scholars of violence and crime, as well as developmental psychologists.

The conference on which this volume is based was one of a series of symposia initiated by the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on the theory and research surrounding topics of interest to the faculty and germane to the Hawaiian community. In order to encourage interaction around specific themes, the symposium series has assembled a small, select group of scholars to exchange knowledge, ideas, and enthusiasm with the resident faculty, students, and the community at large. The first two symposia concentrated on cross-cultural themes (Marsella, Tharp, & Ciborowski, 1979; Marsella, DeVos, & Hsu, 1985). The third one addressed a significant social problem: aggression and violence in children. At the time that our plan was being developed, Hawaii, along with mainland states, was experiencing or at least expressing widespread alarm over the involvement of children and youth in violent crime, in belligerence at school, as perpetrators of aggression at home, and as victims of physical abuse. This symposium was planned around a major area within the department, the Clinical Studies Program. The Clinical Studies Program has developed along two interrelated lines of concentration: one emphasized the foundation of clin cical psychology in basic science and the other expanded its purview into the broader community, covering prevention, systems change, and social networks.

Comprised of papers and commentaries from the Earlscourt Symposium on Childhood Aggression held in Toronto, Canada, this volume reflects the Earlscourt Child and Family Centre's commitment to linking clinical practice to identifiable research-based interventions which are known to be effective in the prevention and treatment of antisocial behavior in children. The education of human services professionals has typically failed to train individuals to work with specific client populations, providing a generalist approach grounded in theoretical assumptions and professional values rather than research and empirical studies. This compelling book serves to fill this gap in professional education in the area of childhood aggression. Representing substantial accomplishments in the advancement of an understanding of the plight of aggressive children and how best to ameliorate their often unpredictable and painful situations, this text allows for cautious optimism that empirical research can have practical consequences for aggressive children and their prospects for a better life. As such, it is a truly important information resource for professionals in the fields of developmental psychology and counseling.

For developmental scientists, the nature versus nurture debate has been settled for some time. Neither nature nor nurture alone provides the answer. It is nature and nurture in concert that shape developmental pathways and outcomes, from health to behavior to competence. This insight has moved far beyond the assertion that both nature and nurture matter, progressing into the fascinating terrain of how they interact over the course of development. In this volume, students, practitioners, policy analysts, and others with a serious interest in human development will learn what is transpiring in this new paradigm from the developmental scientists working at the cutting edge, from neural mechanisms to population studies, and from basic laboratory science to clinical and community interventions. Early childhood development is the critical focus of this volume, because many of the important nature-nurture interactions occur then, with significant influences on lifelong developmental trajectories.

This book is the outgrowth of a memorial conference to honour the scientific contributions of Robert B. Cairns, an internationally recognised interdisciplinary developmental scientist. It is organised around research themes that were an integral part of Dr Cairns' theories and research: neural and developmental plasticity; brain-behaviour bidirectionality; gene-environment interactions. Throughout this book, these themes are linked together by employing animal models and clinical investigations through multiple levels of analysis approach to understanding the origins, development, desistance and prevention of aggression. These studies will add to the compendium of basic knowledge on the developmental psychobiology of aggression and will aid in the ultimate translation of this knowledge to clinical and community settings. This book hopes to foster the legacy of Robert B. Cairns to facilitate the theoretical development and research of a new generation of developmental scientists dedicated to relieving the tragic consequences of aggression on the individual and society.

What can be done to address the problem of violence in society? The contributors to this volume, both scholars and practitioners, examine this question by exploring the history of violence together with theoretical explanations. The book discusses such issues as: the disproportionate presence of violence within North American minority populations; the concept of psychological resiliency; how spirituality may serve as a protective factor; and the role of television in promoting violence. The contributors also address prevention and intervention strategies among gangs of young people, and the implementation of special programmes in schools.