NCJ Number
161585
Date Published
1996
Length
252 pages
Annotation
Intended for all persons concerned about violence in their families, neighborhoods, schools, and communities, this book analyzes the causes of violent behavior and suggests practical steps for preventing one's own violent behavior and helping create environments designed to mitigate the causes of violence.
Abstract
The first two chapters review the prevalence of violence in American society, particularly in families and intimate relationships, and provide an overview of the family characteristics that tend to promote anger and aggressive behavior. Five chapters focus on practical ways to increase personal power and resolve conflicts within the family, the community, and the culture. A focus on the development of nonviolent personal power addresses such techniques as relaxation, meditation, exercise, communication, and ways to avoid the destructive consequences of anger and conflict. One chapter identifies and describes 10 steps to family peace. The 10 steps include the practicing of a positive discipline, the expansion of emotional "fluency," negotiating conflicts with a "win-win" attitude, emphasizing essential values, and minimizing media exposure. Two other chapters describe steps for community involvement that will foster constructive resolutions of conflict and steps for modifying culture to reduce violence. The latter steps include the neutralization of gun violence, the use of mediation, and the nurturing of a "peaceable imagination." The concluding chapter describes the "way of change." 38 references and a subject index