This volume is bold and revolutionary, a clinically oriented primer for clinicians and others interested in the mental health functioning of gang youth and their families. Providing a well-integrated mixture of theory, clinical axioms, and practical ideas, the book offers invaluable information to clinicians, researchers, and program planners worki

The goal of this book is to encourage educators and researchers to understand the complexities of adolescent gang members' lives in order to rethink their assumptions about these students in school. The particular objective is to situate four gang members as literate, caring students from loving families whose identities and literacy keep them on the margins of school. The research described in this book suggests that advocacy is a particularly effective form of critical ethnography. Smith and Whitmore argue that until schools, as communities of practice, enable children and adolescents to retain identities from the communities in which they are full community members, frightening numbers of students are destined to fail. The stories of four Mexican American male adolescents, who were active members of a gang and Smith's students in an alternative high school program, portray the complicated, multiple worlds in which these boys live. As sons and teenage parents they live in a family community; as CRIP members they live in a gang community; as "at risk" students, drop-outs, and graduates they live in a school community, and as a result of their illegal activities they live in the juvenile court community. The authors theorize about the boys' literacy in each of their communities. Literacy is viewed as ideological, related to power, and embedded in a sociocultural context. Vivid examples of conversation, art, tagging, rap, poetry, and other language and literacy events bring the narratives to life in figures and photographs in all the chapters. Readers will find this book engaging and readable, yet thought provoking and challenging. Audiences for Literacy and Advocacy in Adolescent Family, Gang, School, and Juvenile Court Communities include education researchers, professionals, and students in the areas of middle/high school education, at-risk adolescent psychology, and alternative community programs--specifically those interested in literacy education, sociocultural theory, and popular culture.

Published in 1998, Adolescent Gangs is a valuable contribution to the field of Counseling and School Therapy.

The Second Edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Behavioral Problems clarifies the current state of treatment and prevention through comprehensive examinations of mental disorders and dysfunctional behaviors as well as the varied forces affecting their development. New or revised chapters offer a basic framework for approaching mental health concerns in youth and provide the latest information on how conditions (e.g., bipolar disorder, suicidality, and OCD) and behaviors (e.g., sex offenses, gang activities, dating violence, and self-harm) manifest in adolescents. Each chapter offers diagnostic guidance, up-to-date findings on prevalence, biological/genetic aspects, risk and resilience factors, and a practical review of prevention and treatment methods. Best-practice recommendations clearly differentiate among what works, what might work, what doesn't work, and what needs further research across modalities, including pharmacotherapy. Key topics addressed include: Families and adolescent development. Adolescent mental health and the DSM-5. Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Autism spectrum disorder. Media and technology addiction. School failure versus school success. Bullying and cyberbullying. The Second Edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Behavior Problems is a must-have reference for researchers, clinicians, allied practitioners and professionals, and graduate students in school and clinical child psychology, education, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, school counseling, and public health.

"The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society is the premier reference book on gangs for practitioners, policymakers, students, and scholars. This carefully curated volume contains 43 chapters written by the leading experts in the field, who advance a central theme of "looking back, moving forward" by providing state-of-the-art reviews of the literature they created, shaped, and (re)defined. This international, interdisciplinary collective of authors provides readers with a rare tour of the field in its entirety, expertly navigating thorny debates and the at-times contentious history of gang research, while simultaneously synthesizing flourishing areas of study that advance the field into the 21st century. The volume is divided into six cohesive sections that reflect the diverse field of gang studies and capture the large-scale cultural, economic, political, and social changes occurring within the world of gangs in the last century; anticipating immense changes on the horizon. From definitions to history to theory to epistemology to technology to policy and practice, this unprecedented volume captures the most timely and important topics in the field. When readers finish this book, they will be more confident in what we know and do not know about gangs in our society"--

Offering a fresh perspective on treatment, this book presents an overarching framework and numerous specific strategies for working with violent youth and their families. The authors draw on extensive experience to identify four critical factors that push some adolescents to commit harmful, even deadly acts: devaluation, erosion of community, dehumanized loss, and rage. Effective ways to address each of these factors in clinical and school settings are discussed and illustrated with evocative case material. The book also provides essential guidance on connecting with aggressive teeens--many whom have endured traumas of their owen--managing difficult situations that are likely to arise in therapy.