Today's children are bombarded with images of violence in cartoons, news reports, television shows, computer games, movies, and other media. In growing numbers, they are also exposed to real-life violence in their own homes and communities--as witnesses, victims, and, increasingly, perpetrators. Too often, children learn that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict. Yet even as the problem escalates, our society spends little effort finding viable solutions beyond incarceration-an after-the-problem approach. Emphasizing the need for early intervention and prevention, this timely book examines the impact of violence exposure on children and youth, discusses several existing programs, and proposes new approaches to the problem.

This open access book brings together discourse on children and peace from the 15th International Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace, covering issues pertinent to children and peace and approaches to making their world safer, fairer and more sustainable. The book is divided into nine sections that examine traditional themes (social construction and deconstruction of diversity, intergenerational transitions and memories of war, and multiculturalism), as well as contemporary issues such as Europe’s “migration crisis”, radicalization and violent extremism, and violence in families, schools and communities. Chapters contextualize each issue within specific social ecological frameworks in order to reflect on the multiplicity of influences that affect different outcomes and to discuss how the findings can be applied in different contexts. The volume also provides solutions and hope through its focus on youth empowerment and peacebuilding programs for children and families. This forward-thinking volume offers a multitude of views, approaches, and strategies for research and activism drawn from peace psychology scholars and United Nations researchers and practitioners. This book's multi-layered emphasis on context, structural determinants of peace and conflict, and use of research for action towards social cohesion for children and youth has not been brought together in other peace psychology literature to the same extent. Children and Peace: From Research to Action will be a useful resource for peace psychology academics and students, as well as social and developmental psychology academics and students, peace and development practitioners and activists, policy makers who need to make decisions about the matters covered in the book, child rights advocates and members of multilateral organizations such as the UN.

This text focuses on violent fathering and discusses research in the context of domestic violence. It examines fathers' perceptions of their domestic violence amd its impact on children, their relationships with children and their parenting practices. It also recommends ways that policy and practice can be improved.

Violence against women and children is a serious public health concern, with costs at multiple levels of society. Although violence is a threat to everyone, women and children are particularly susceptible to victimization because they often have fewer rights or lack appropriate means of protection. In some societies certain types of violence are deemed socially or legally acceptable, thereby contributing further to the risk to women and children. In the past decade research has documented the growing magnitude of such violence, but gaps in the data still remain. Victims of violence of any type fear stigmatization or societal condemnation and thus often hesitate to report crimes. The issue is compounded by the fact that for women and children the perpetrators are often people they know and because some countries lack laws or regulations protecting victims. Some of the data that have been collected suggest that rates of violence against women range from 15 to 71 percent in some countries and that rates of violence against children top 80 percent. These data demonstrate that violence poses a high burden on global health and that violence against women and children is common and universal. Preventing Violence Against Women and Children focuses on these elements of the cycle as they relate to interrupting this transmission of violence. Intervention strategies include preventing violence before it starts as well as preventing recurrence, preventing adverse effects (such as trauma or the consequences of trauma), and preventing the spread of violence to the next generation or social level. Successful strategies consider the context of the violence, such as family, school, community, national, or regional settings, in order to determine the best programs.

Award-winning journalist Tina Rosenberg spent five years in Latin America--drinking coffee with hit men and sunbathing with death-squad financiers--to understand people for whom violence is a way of life. Her six vivid and haunting portraits illuminate the human face of violence, not only in Latin America, but all over the world.

The past decade has seen a burgeoning of research and conceptualization on the implications of parental violence exposure on children's development and well-being. Meanwhile, seemingly daily accounts of violent tragedies committed by our youth brings to our attention the urgency of conveying this information. With these ideas in mind, Children and Interparental Violence focuses on childrens exposure to violence between their caretakers and the subsequent effects on child development. To this end, the authors review current theories, research, and treatment strategies of the 1990s, paying specific attention to families' ethnic backgrounds, parents' sexual orientation, and forensic and legal issues, all factors affecting the nature and severity of impact. Prevention and intervention models (including great detail on risk and protective factors), techniques, and programs are discussed, as well as research evaluating their usefulness. Keeping in mind the goal of integrating practice and policy with current violence and developmental research and theory, numerous case examples take the reader from the lab and classroom into the session room and courtroom.

Teaching Young Children in Violent Times helps teachers and group leaders working with pre-K to 3rd-graders to create an environment in which young children can learn alternatives to the violent behaviors modeled in our society, the media and home. Mixing dialogs, anecdotes and theory, the book provides essential insights into the developmental roots of young children's thinking and behaviors around gender, prejudice, violence and conflict. It offers practical guidelines and activities for meeting young children's needs for safety; helping young children learn to appreciate diversity; and providing opportunities and skills to resolve conflicts creatively and respectfully. This rich resource also supplies suggestions for using dialogue, puppetry, games, play, class charts, curriculum webs, and children's books to turn any classroom into a peaceable one. Diane Levin is a widely known and respected educator and researcher who co-authored The War Play Dilemma and the best-selling Who's Calling the Shots? Published by Educators for Social Responsibility; distributed to the trade by NSP.