In the first book to help parents truly understand youth violence and stop it before it explodes, national expert Dr. James Garbarino reveals how to identify children who are at risk and offers proven methods to prevent aggressive behavior. After more than a decade of relentless increase in the urban war zones of large cities, violence by young boys and adolescents is on the rise in our suburbs, small towns, and rural communities. Twenty-five years as a psychologist working in the trenches with such children has convinced James Garbarino that boys everywhere really are angrier and more violent than ever before. In light of the recent school-based shootings, it's now clear that no matter where we live or how hard we try as parents, chances are our children are going to school with troubled boys capable of getting guns and pulling triggers. Beyond the deaths and debilitating injuries that result from this phenomenon are the staggering psychological costs -- children who are afraid to go to school, teachers who are afraid of their students, and parents who fear for their children's lives. Building on his pioneering work, Garbarino shows why young men and boys have become increasingly vulnerable to violent crime and how lack of adult supervision and support poses a real and growing threat to our children's basic safety. For these vulnerable boys, violence can become normal, the "right thing to do." Terry, one of the boys Garbarino interviews, says "I just wasn't gonna take it anymore. I knew I would have to pay the price for what I did, but I didn't care." We've seen how the deadly combination of ignoring excessively bad behavior and allowing easy access to guns has destroyed families in Pennsylvania, Oregon, New York, Washington, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Fortunately, parents can spot troubled boys and take steps to protect their families from violence if they know what signs to look for -- lack of connection, masking emotions, withdrawal, silence, rage, trouble with friends, hypervigilance, cruelty toward other children and even animals -- all warning signs that every parent and peer can recognize and report. Dr. Garbarino, whom Dr. Stanley Greenspan of the National Institute of Mental Health hails as "one of the true pioneers in our understanding of the inner life of our youth," addresses the wide range of issues that boys of every temperament and from every background may have to confront as they grow and develop. By outlining the steps parents, teachers, and public officials can take to keep all children safer, Dr. Garbarino holds out hope and solutions for turning our kids away from violence, before it is too late. This is one of the most important and original books ever written about boys. The school murder sprees of 1997-98 provide a backdrop for this inquiry into an "epidemic" of youthful male violence that has been worsening over the past 25 years. The bulk of the book is devoted to an analysis of the roots and meaning of lethal violence as revealed through interviews with perpetrators. Garbarino (human development, Cornell Univ.; Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment, Jossey-Bass, 1995) discusses these narratives in the context of statistical and psychological/ psychiatric research. Causative factors like abuse, gangs and codes of honor, substance abuse, neurological deficits, and school problems are considered from a social ecology perspective grounded in the work of Garbarino's mentor, Urie Bronfenbrenner. The book concludes with a catalog of strategies to combat boyhood violence. Solutions call for spiritual literacy as well as government action and research-based programs. Readable yet well documented and brimming with ideas, this book is recommended for larger public libraries and public policy collections.AAntoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. An impressively well researched, thoughtful, and helpful study of why some American boys become violent, even murderous, and about what can be done, beyond the simpleminded response of building more prisons, to prevent such behavior and to help boys when preventive efforts fail. Garbarino (Human Development/Cornell.) delves into the confluence of psychological, social, existential, and spiritual factors that make some acting out boys become violent. These include lack of sufficient attachment to at least one loving and reliable adult, living in drug- and crime-infested neighborhoods, suffering abuse or some other trauma, and lacking the kind of a spiritual anchor that provides a system of meaning beyond the self. In the last quarter of his book, Garbarino proposes a variety of responses (he doesnt believe in a single magic bullet solution) to aid at-risk and violent boys. His ideas are often innovative and generally involve the boys families as well as social institutions. For example, he recommends that incarcerated juvenile offenders be placed in institutions