Young Homicide Offenders and Victims Risk Factors, Prediction, and Prevention from Childhood

From the reviews:"There is no doubt that the authors have elevated empirical research in this important area to a new and unprecedented level. This groundbreaking study should be read by all behavioral science and legal professionals concerned with understanding serious youth violence, as it will be the standard by which future research on this topic will and should be judged."Charles Patrick EwingPsycCRITIQUES, April 11, 2012, Vol. 57, Release 15, Article 5---------“This is a fascinating, pioneering book. Based on results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study, it identifies childhood risk factors that predict involvement in homicide as offenders and victims, and it offers provocative simulations of the potential impacts of possible prevention strategies. The authors’ sophisticated analyses demonstrate convincingly the considerable value of prospective longitudinal data for enhancing our understanding of the etiology and control of lethal violence.”Steven F. Messner, Ph.D.Distinguished Teacher Professor, Department of Sociology, University at Albany, SUNYPresident, American Society of Criminology ---------“How do homicide offenders differ from other violent offenders with respect to early life and more proximate risk factors? How do homicide offenders differ from homicide victims? Is it possible to predict, years in advance, who will kill or be killed? Until now, homicide researchers could only speculate about the answers to these and related questions, or the answers were based on crude and often unreliable data. This book changes the game in violence research.  Analyzing richly detailed data from a community sample of boys studied from early childhood into young adulthood, Loeber and Farrington dissect the developmental pathways that lead to lethal violence and propose interventions to ameliorate the early-life risk factors that otherwise lead predictably toviolence and death. The analysis is masterful, the prose is readable, and the achievement is nothing short of stunning. This book is required reading for veteran researchers, students, criminal justice and public health professionals, and anyone who wants to know what cutting edge research on a critical public problem looks like.”Richard Rosenfeld, Ph.D.Curators Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis--------- “Beginning with Wolfgang’s classic Patterns in Criminal Homicide, many important books on homicide have followed but none has recently emerged as a turning point in the field. That is, until now. Loeber and Farrington’s volume is a collection of firsts in many respects, primarily because it is the first to use prospective longitudinal data to predict homicide offenders and victims from childhood risk factors as well as to consider prevention/intervention efforts in great detail. In very short order, Young Homicide Offenders and Victims: Development, Risk Factors, and Prediction from Childhood will become one of those key books that sits on the desks and shelves of students, academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike. But, unlike some others, this is one that will be read, reread, and learned from in many respects.Alex R. Piquero, Ph.D.Gordon P. Waldo Professor of CriminologyFlorida State University ---------“This book will stand the test of time as a landmark homicide study. Principally, it is the first of its kind to analyze the development of a representative sample of homicide offenders and victims over the life course, from childhood to adulthood. Moreover, the researchers are two of the most renowned developmental criminologists in the world.”James C. Howell, Ph.D.Senior Research AssociateNational Gang Center“Rolf Loeber, David Farrington, and their colleagues …describe how they used data from a large longitudinal study, the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), to develop statistical models for predicting which young men would become violent offenders, convicted perpetrators of homicide, shooting victims, and victims of homicide. … This groundbreaking study should be read by all behavioral science and legal professionals concerned with understanding serious youth violence, as it will be the standard by which future research on this topic will and should be judged.” (Charles Patrick Ewing, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 57 (15), April, 2012)