Preventing Violence (Prospects for Tomorrow) [Paperback]

James Gilligan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0500282781 | ISBN-13: 978-0500282786 | Publication Date: July 2001

In this controversial and compassionate book, the distinguished psychiatrist James Gilligan proposes a radically new way of thinking about violence and how to prevent it.

Violence is most often addressed in moral and legal terms: "How evil is this action, and how much punishment does it deserve?" Unfortunately, this way of thinking, the basis for our legal and political institutions, does nothing to shed light on the causes of violence. Violent criminals have been Gilligan's teachers, and he has been their student. Prisons are microcosms of the societies in which they exist, and by examining them in detail, we can learn about society as a whole. Gilligan suggests treating violence as a public health problem. He advocates initiating radical social and economic change to attack the root causes of violence, focusing on those at increased risk of becoming violent, and dealing with those who are already violent as if they were in quarantine rather than in constraint for their punishment and for society's revenge. The twentieth century was steeped in violence. If we attempt to understand the violence of individuals, we may come to prevent the collective violence that threatens our future far more than all the individual crimes put together.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Gilligan is a psychiatrist who has been on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School since 1965, for 25 years directing the provision of psychiatric services to the Massachusetts prisons and prison mental hospital. He is President of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy, and was asked by President Clinton to join the Academic Advisory Council of the National Campaign Against Youth Violence in the USA. He has also served as a consultant and adviser to Tony Blair (as Shadow Home Secretary) and the Law Lords. He is the author of Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes (1996).

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500282781
• ISBN-13: 978-0500282786
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, February 22, 2007

By 

Robert "Agentdemon" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preventing Violence (Prospects for Tomorrow) (Paperback)

Having read Dr. Gilligan's first book, I was very excited to see he had a sequel dealing with the prevention of violence. The first one changed my perspective on a number of things and this book expanded on that. I strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the necessary factors for preventing violence.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here settle responses, January 25, 2008

By 

Frank (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preventing Violence (Prospects for Tomorrow) (Paperback)

There's simply no other book like this. And I've read a lot of the topic. It should be a require reading for social psychologist and clinicians, psychiatrists, and other mental health workers that really want to understand the context of violence. Even policy makers. Probably would be no other jewel statistically, in theory and practice like this.