Economics and Youth Violence

"Economics and Youth Violence is a brilliant volume that draws together many insights on how economic conditions affect violence by juveniles. Indispensable reading for criminologists, social scientists, and policy makers." ~Rolf Loeber,Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

"Economics and Youth Violenceis a valuable work that will benefit both scholars and practitioners working in the field of family violence response and prevention. It would serve well as a graduate level text, but is accessibly written so that any educated reader will benefit from its fascinating tapestry of interwoven facts and phenomena. I recommend this book highly to researchers in violence studies." ~Wendy C. Hamblet, Metapsychology

"Edberg, Fang, and Florence revolutionize the economics of youth and violence literature by bringing together expertly written contributions that focus on the relationship between macroeconomic factors (inflation, unemployment, poverty rate, income inequality) and the propensity of youth for violent crime....A timely, must-read volume..." ~S. Chaudhuri, CHOICE

"This volume highlights the importance of addressing youth violence not only as a family or individual problem but one that is influenced in a number of ways by socioeconomic conditions within the neighborhood, community, and larger society. To reduce youth violence, policies must move beyond a focus on the individual or family and take into consideration the interaction between such factors as unemployment, family structure, and child/adolescent development on youth violence." ~Finn Esbensen,E. Desmond Lee Professor of Youth Crime and Violence, University of Missouri--St. Louis

"This volume offers keen insights into the complex relationships between macroeconomic conditions and youth violence. The chapters, which are authored by leading experts drawn from multiple disciplines in the social sciences, provide thorough reviews of the existing literature and introduce provocative new research findings. The book is sure to be a highly valuable resource for scholars, policy analysts, and members of the general public who are interested in the causes and prevention of youth violence." ~Steven F. Messner,Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology, SUNY Albany

"The volume reveals both the greatest failure and the greatest insight about the role of economic factors on the etiology of antisocial behavior." ~Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

"Expertly collects the relevant data and studies on economic effects on youth violence and analyzes them in such a way that allows for future research on the subject to benefit." ~Adolescent Research Review

"[U]nlike a large majority of developmental research in this area, the authors maintain a sense of realism with the reader admitting that some economic inequity is likely inevitable and, thus, some observed effects on adolescence are unavoidable. In addition, the project never abandons a hopeful undertone. With the existing data and outlined directions for further research, Rosenfeld and colleagues contend that youth engagement in violent behavior can be minimized when youth are properly engaged with their surroundings, therefore making youth not a mere symptom of their environment." ~Journal of Youth Adolescence

"Ten papers explore how economic conditions such as poverty, unemployment, inflation, and economic growth affect public problems, including the level and types of youth violence in a community or society." ~Journal of Economic Literature