Book Review: Violent men: An inquiry into the psychology of violence

• Published date: 01 June 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016818799143
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
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defendant takes the same class). This hindrance may be exacerbated if students feel they have to go
through the judicial process once reported. Part 3 looks at how campuses have developed educa-
tional programs to combat violence such as active bystander intervention and engaging men in
preventing sexual violence. The final section looks at future efforts and challenges in preventing
violence. It includes a look at schools that have gone through Title IX investigations and are deemed,
“rehabilitated schools.”
The book is comprehensive and takes a look at major issues surrounding sexual violence on
campus. There are several ways this is done in the book. One, while the book is not heavily focused
on statistics, the information provided in the book is beneficial to understanding the depth of the
problem. For example, Chapter 3 focuses on the prevalence of dating violence on college campus.
Statistics are provided that would surprise many individuals unfamiliar with the topic. However,
providing this type of information helps to shed light on an often overlooked topic.
It also focuses attention on men preventing sexual violence on college campuses. While most
rhetoric on this topic talks about how women can prevent being a victim of violence, there is little
mention of how hypermasculinity plays a role in the prevalence of violence and how that needs to be
addressed to prevent sexual violence. For instance, Chapter 5 talks about, “male peer support theory”
that analyzes how men live in a society that perpetuates and normalizes violence against women and
depending on who their male peers are, this violence may be deemed acceptable in dating relation-
ships. Similarly, Chapter 15 engages the necessary focus on men with addressing how to engage men
in the anti-violence initiative.
What is particularly unique about the book is that the contributors come from an array of back-
grounds, from professors, researchers, administrators, victim advocates, and Title IX coordinators,
all of whom are experts in this field and can...