Customer Reviews

Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help Bad Boys Become Good Men

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In this riveting account of the effects of the criminal justice system on boys and men in our culture, Dr. Kipnis sounds a cry of alarm:In our overemphasis on criminalization and punishment and our underemphasis on mental health care and healing, we are failing our boys.At the same time, we have created a gulag, a prison subculture that is now big business and that requires us to feed it money and men. This impeccably researched work deserves to be read -- and acted on -- by parents of boys, service providers of boys, policy makers, and educators. The author's personal story, my favorite section, is a contemporary hero's journey that offers hope to any reader.

With all the sensational press about the dangerous young men in our schools and neighborhoods, it is refreshing to read Kipnis's first hand account of what contributes to the despair and hostility in troubled adolescent boys. His book has specific suggestions for addressing the problems he identifies in clear and compelling language. This book, and "Raising Cain" by Dan Kindlon amd Michael Thompson have been the best insights into the life of boys that I have read this past year.

From Library Journal-- The author's own history is a litany of physical abuse, parental neglect, abandonment, foster homes, homelessness, drug use, and juvenile incarcerations. With determination and, importantly, help, young Kipnis managed a lifestyle change: He earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is now on the faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has since worked to instill his belief that a culture that learns to understand and address the needs of young males, especially those of social, racial, or economic minorities, is financially, practically, humanely wiser than one that locks them up or puts them down when their frustration erupts in disruptive social and/or criminal actions, as his did. Kipnis persuasively contends that parenting and job-skills training programs, counseling, community services, and affordable quality education is infinitely more effective in encouraging constructive behavior for them and their progeny than America's increasingly popular punitive response. Highly recommended for academics, professionals, and the general public.--Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

This book is excellent! I work in a correctional facility and it has really helped me to understand the young men that I work with. I plan on reading it with them and having discussions on the information presented. Many of these young men come from the "5-H club" mentioned in the book. They need people who understand where they have come from and what they have gone through. I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished for their crimes, but I feel we need to find alternative solutions for these young men, rather than putting them in an adult prison where they only learn new and more dangerous crimes from the hardened criminals.

San Francisco Chronicle-Dec, 1999 Reviewed by Jules Siegel "Most convincing, of all recent offerings on this subject, is Angry Young Men by youth crime expert Aaron Kipnis, a former street person and delinquent who was in and out of Los Angeles juvenile detention centers, jails and foster homes in the late Sixties and early Seventies, mostly for non-crimes such as running away from home to escape being beaten by a brutal stepfather. Written with unflinching and often shocking candor, Angry Young Men is a heart-pounding reading experience. It tells in harrowing detail exactly how violent criminals are created by poverty, fractured families, prison-like schools and a criminal justice system that seems to be designed to create and maintain a new class of mostly black slaves to feed its voracious demands. Complementing the author's personal experiences, Angry Young Men offers an especially thorough and persuasive agenda for changing the way our society's institutions create violent crime. The book is undoubtedly the indispensable document on the subject and deserves very careful attention and respect."

Dr Aaron Kipnis has done an excellent job in this book. Not only has he researched the subject well, and provided many statistics, he hits the core issue: our systems in America are not helping young men. I applaud Dr Kipnis' honesty about his personal struggles with breaking the law and spending time in correctional facilitites. This book explains how the prison system is a big business and how we are not rehabilitating anyone with the current system we have.

I teach remedial English and reading at a middle school with a high poverty rate, a 40% latino population, and a big gang problem. All of my students are Latino, most are boys, and most are constantly in trouble at school, if not with the law. This book doesn't have all the answers, but it went a long way towards helping me understand where my troubled boys are coming from and why they act the way they do.

This book is a moving interweaving of autobiographical anecdotes, patiently accumulated facts (did you know that more is spent in the US on prisons than on college educations? See malepsych.com for more such data), and concrete suggestions for understanding our national epidemic of angry youth and doing something constructive about it.

Don't let the impotence of current national solutions and quick-fixes ("just say no"; "bring your child to work day"; etc. ad nauseum) convince you that the problem of angry young men is insoluble. It's not. In fact, the suggestions offered by the author throughout the book are relevant, doable, sensible, and verifiable. Grouping the outside forces that make for violence into six Pathways to Prison, Dr. Kipnis goes on to explain what they look and feel like from inside the young rager--and it is that part we sorely lack in our sorry stabs at "explaining" youth violence from the outside, its perpetrators objects to be warehoused for a profit as slave labor.

Most of the violent males I've counseled have already done jail or prison time--and yet even with them, listening carefully, confronting them firmly and respectfully with the consequences of their behavior, educating them about basics like managing addictions and painful emotions, and showing them that strong males can be gentle, patient, and nonviolently assertive gave our counseling center (Cornerstone) close to a 90% success rate (meaning: 90% men who completed the full program never reviolated their probation). I wish I'd had this book available then, for them and for me. So much more can be done with young men before they ever get to this point!

Dr. Kipnis is President of the Fatherhood Coalition, a nonprofit that among other things encourages fathers to be an active, available part of their childrens' lives. I can tell you that of the hundreds of violent men I've worked with, not one--not one!--had had an adequate, let alone loving, relationship with his father. Given our country of unavailable dads (and moms, of course), do you begin to see why more young men are imprisoned in the US than were locked up in pro-aparteid Africa?

This and other dynamics behind the immense problem of young male violence are explained in this book with clarity, erudition, and personal experiences convincing far beyond the usual theoretical models.

The Talmud talks about the "Master of Return," the man who took the wrong way and then found the right way; in the eyes of God such a man stands higher than even the angels in heaven. One such man has penned this book, as you'll see for yourself when you read it. If you spend any time at all around young males, or if you simply want to understand what's going on in their world, then this resource is indispensable.

This book is easy to read and very informative. It gives you an insiders view of the hardships of getting caught "in the system." He is a true expert on the shortcomings of how, as a society, we handle challengin youth. He has not only studied the topic in a traditional academic way, but lived through the challenging experiences himself. Despite the subject matter being heavy, Dr. Kipnis interweaves hope throughout the narative. He makes many suggestions for changes within the system, in how we teach and work with boys, and overall suggestions to have compassion for these kids. As far as readablity and an overall exploration of how innocent boys can become angry young men, you can't get much better than this.

I first checked this book out at the library somewhat reluctantly. It looked like a text book, in other words, necessary information but rather dull and difficult to read through. I couldn't have been more wrong! It was absolutely excellent information from someone who grew up as one of the boys from "the wrong side of the tracks." I am aspiring to be a Juvenile Probation Officer and this book was just so informative. It is a must read for anyone working with or raising young men.