NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The panel study on understanding and preventing violence was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice. Additional funding to support publication of the commissioned papers was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Justice.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Understanding and preventing violence.
"Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior, Committee on Law and Justice, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. [1]. [without special title] — v. 4. Consequences and control.
1. Violence—United States. 2. Violence—United States—Prevention. 3. Violent crimes—United States. I. Reiss, Albert J. II. Roth, Jeffrey A., 1945- III. National Research Council (U.S.). Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior.
HN90.V5U53 1993 303.6 92-32137
ISBN 0-309-04594-0 (v. 1)
ISBN 0-309-05079-0 (v. 4)
Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
First Printing, May 1994
Second Printing, November 1994
PANEL ON THE UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROL OF VIOLENT BEHAVIOR
ALBERT J. REISS, JR., Chair,
Department of Sociology, Yale University
DAVID P. FARRINGTON, Vice Chair,
Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University
ELIJAH ANDERSON,
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
GREGORY CAREY,
Institute of Behavior Genetics, University of Colorado
JACQUELINE COHEN,
School of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie Mellon University
PHILIP J. COOK,
Institute of Policy Sciences, Duke University
FELTON EARLS,
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Harvard University
LEONARD ERON,
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois
LUCY FRIEDMAN,
Victim Services Agency, New York
TED ROBERT GURR,
Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
JEROME KAGAN,
Department of Psychology, Harvard University
ARTHUR KELLERMANN,
Emergency Department, Regional Medical Center, Memphis, and Department of Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee
RON LANGEVIN,
Juniper Psychological Services, Toronto, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
COLIN LOFTIN,
Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Maryland
KLAUS A. MICZEK,
Department of Psychology, Tufts University
MARK H. MOORE,
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
JAMES F. SHORT, JR.,
Social and Economic Sciences Research Center, Washington State University
LLOYD STREET,
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University
FRANKLIN E. ZIMRING,
Law School, University of California, Berkeley
JEFFREY A. ROTH, Principal Staff Officer
COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE 1990-1991
STANTON WHEELER, Chair,
School of Law, Yale University
JOAN MCCORD, Vice Chair,
Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University
ROBERT BORUCH,
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
JOSÉ CABRANES, U.S. District Judge,
New Haven, Connecticut
JOHN COFFEE,
Columbia University School of Law
PHILIP J. COOK,
Institute of Policy Sciences, Duke University
DAVID P. FARRINGTON,
Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University
ROBERT KAGAN,
Center for Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley
MARK H. MOORE,
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
ALBERT J. REISS, JR. (ex officio), Chair,
Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior
JOHN ROLPH,
The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California
ELLEN SCHALL,
National Center for Health Education, New York
JEROME SKOLNICK,
School of Law (Jurisprudence & Social Policy), University of California, Berkeley
LLOYD STREET,
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University
NEIL VIDMAR,
School of Law, Duke University
BARBARA YNGVESSON,
School of Social Science, Hampshire College
Contents
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Public Perceptions and Reactions to Violent Offending and Victimization |
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The Costs and Consequences of Violent Behavior in the United States |
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Violence and Intentional Injuries: Criminal Justice and Public Health Perspectives on an Urgent National Problem |
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Predicting Violent Behavior and Classifying Violent Offenders |
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Incarceration and Violent Crime: 1965-1988 |
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Foreword
In cities, suburban areas, and even small towns, Americans are fearful and concerned that violence has permeated the fabric of their communities and degraded the quality of their lives. This anxiety is not unfounded. In recent years, murders have killed about 23,000 people annually, while upward of 3,000,000 nonfatal but serious violent victimizations have occurred each year. These incidents are sources of chronic fear and public concern over the seeming inability of public authorities to prevent them.
Because of this concern, three federal agencies requested the National Research Council to carry out a comprehensive review of research applicable to the understanding and control of violence. Within the general topic of violence, the three sponsors expressed somewhat different sets of priorities. The National Science Foundation's Law and Social Science Program sought a review of current knowledge of the causes of violent behavior and recommendations about priorities in funding future basic research. The other two sponsors were more concerned with the application of that knowledge to the prevention and control of violence. The National Institute of Justice sought advice on how to prevent and control violent crimes, using the combined resources of criminal justice and other agencies. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought assistance in setting priorities in efforts to prevent injuries and deaths from violent events.
In response, the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences
and Education, through its Committee on Law and Justice, established the Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior and took primary responsibility for shaping the specific mandate and composition of the panel. Two features of its mandate carried particular weight. First, to draw implications from past research and to chart its future course, the perspectives and models of biological, psychological, and social science research on violence should be integrated. Second, as a matter of science policy, the panel's work should orient the future allocation of research and evaluation resources toward the development and refinement of promising strategies for reducing violence and its consequences.
Early on, the panel recognized that the extraordinary breadth of its mandate demanded the mobilization of expertise beyond that of its own members and staff. Therefore, in addition to preparing a number of internal review memoranda, it commissioned a number of reviews and analyses by experts in certain specialized topics. Although the commissioned papers reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the panel, all were valuable resources for the panel. From the entire set, the panel selected 15 for publication in supplementary volumes because it found them particularly useful. The panel is grateful to all the authors and to the discussants who prepared comments for the panel's Symposium on Understanding and Preventing Violence.
This volume contains five of the panel's commissioned reviews and analyses concerning the consequences of violence and strategies for controlling them. Mark Warr reviewed the research literature on public perceptions and reactions to violence. Mark Cohen, Ted Miller, and Shelli Rossman developed estimates of the costs of violence. Panel member Mark Moore, collaborating with Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Bernard Guyer, and Howard Spivak, explored the commonalities and complementarities of criminal justice and public health responses to violence. Jan Chaiken, Marcia Chaiken, and William Rhodes reviewed the results of efforts to reduce violence through the prediction and classification of violent offenders. Panel member Jacqueline Cohen and José Canela-Cacho analyzed the relationships between trends in violence and in prison populations during a period of extraordinary increase in the use of incarceration. The panel members believe that, like themselves, others will find these papers to be valuable sources of knowledge and insights.