School Violence: Assessment, Management, Prevention

Rating:
Summary: School violence
Review: In 1999 it was found that 17% of American high school students reported carrying a gun or other weapon over the past 30 days (MacKay AP, Fingerhut LA, Duran CR. Adolescent health chartbok. Health, United States, 2000. Hyattsville, MD: Nat Center Health Statistics, 2000) and males were more likely to carry than females. Among male students, non-Hispanic black students were more likely to carry a gun than non-Hospanic white and Hispanic students. Seven percent of the students reported carrying a weapon to school, 11% of males and three percent of females. In 1999, 27 percent of female students and 44 percent of male students were involved in one or more physical fights, but between 1991 and 1999 the percent of students carrying a weapon decreaseds 35% (26% in 1991 and 17% in 1999) (1).
This book is edited by Mohammad Shafii, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and Sharon Shafii, a nurse with experience in adolescent medicine with another 22 contributors with a multidisciplinary background. The book is devided into four sections (Contributing factors, assessment and management, legal aspects and prevention) with a total of 15 chapters and a god index.
The layout is good, the chapters easy to read and the editors did an excellent work in order to give an up-to-date review of this field with perspectives for further research, prevention and interventions. We would have liked to see e-mail addresses included in the list of authors for further personal communication with each author.
This book will certainly become a resource book for professionals working in the school environment.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc
Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel and Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: [e-mail]

Shlomo Kessel, MA
Director of Neve Natoa Residential Center, Box 93, Hadera. E-mail: [e-mail]