The encyclopedia of violence: origins, attitudes, consequences

Abstract

This volume addresses one of the most alarming social characteristics of contemporary society, the high incidence of violence and crime. It takes as its subject street and domestic violence and crime, as well as the related areas of corporate or white-collar crime and organized crime, considered as aspects of a single but complex and extraordinarily dangerous public health problem. The author scrutinizes statistical evidence as well as the unquantifiable sociocultural and psychological roots of violence, and summarizes responses to it by the health, law-enforcement, judicial and prison systems. Among the entries in this book, there are well-informed considerations of the drug trade, hate crimes, child abuse, campus violence, availability of guns, the possible existence of a criminal mind, police and prosecutorial procedures, crime statistics, and many other much-discussed but little-understood topics. The value of this book does not end with its informative examination of the issues; in a detailed appendix, Ms. DiCanio provides an up-to-date catalog, with addresses and phone numbers, of public and private agencies and volunteer groups providing legal aid, drug counseling, and assistance for victims of street crime or domestic violence, as well as those involved in research and advocacy on public policy issues. Margaret DiCanio draws on numerous sources, both scholarly and popular, for her evidence. Fully indexed, with an extensive bibliography, useful to concerned individuals or professional counselors, Encyclopedia of Violence: Origins, Attitudes, Consequences is a comprehensive popular reference source on a subject that is more than ever a matter of urgent public concern.