Book Review: Handbook of School Violence
Published date | 01 September 2005 |
Date | 01 September 2005 |
DOI | 10.1177/0734016805284329 |
Subject Matter | Articles |
Their findings point to lower incomes and higher rates of recidivismfor former offenders that
will in turn affect their families and communities.
In the concluding essay by Jeremy Travis (“Reentry and Reintegration: New Perspectives
on the Challenges of Mass Incarceration”), the author insists that corrections policy must
extend beyond prison walls and must address the issue of prisoners’reentry and reintegration
into their families, communities, and the labor market. To avoid the cycle of recidivism and
reincarceration, Travis proposes more collaboration between prison officials and those in
child and family welfare services, educational and job-training programs, and mental and
public health agencies.
The contributors to Imprisoning America use solid data to show that current sentencing
and correction policies have a number of unintended consequences. The mass incarceration
of an already marginalized portion of society may actually increase crime rates and threaten
public safety.
Richard Lawrence
St. Cloud State University
Handbook of School Violence, by Edwin R. Gerler Jr. (Ed.). Binghamton, UK: Haworth
Press, 2004. pp. xxiii, 368.
DOI: 10.1177/0734016805284329
As I have been reviewing the Handbook of School Violence, we have been shocked, sad-
dened, and maybe even angered at the recent events in Red Lake, Minnesota, America’s
deadliest school shooting since the Columbine tragedy. Even as the incidence of violent
school rampages has been on the decline since the late 1990s, we are once again reminded
that the problem is not solved. Despite the fact that school continues to be the safest place for
youth to be, school rampages understandably capture the national attention. There is much
fear that “my child’s school could be next.” How does a school prepare for such a crisis? As
one participant in our research of averted school violence indicated,
it happens just like we said, in a place you thought it would never happen. Everybody says,
“Well, I don’t think it will happen here.”And we said the same thing, but in turn saying “Well,
that’s what everybody says, it could happen anywhere.”
Thanks to the work of numerous individuals and research centers, answers are beginning to
emerge about how to prevent school violence.
The Handbook of School Violence offers a comprehensive examination of school vio-
lence. The editor (Edwin Gerler) has gathered together a group of both prominent and up-
and-coming researchers and thinkers in the field of school violence. The chapter authors rep-
resent a wide array of specialties, including clinical psychology, school psychology, school
counseling, anthropology, and criminal justice. The multiple perspectives these disciplines
provide add depth to the issues. Gerler, a counselor educator, has written extensively about
school counseling and is the founding editor of the Journal of School Violence. In his words,
this book
238 Criminal Justice Review
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