Book Description

Every Ted Bundy/Charles Manson, Littleton, Rwanda/Kosovo inspires a renewed, desperate search for explanations & solutions. Hundreds of books wrestle w/ aspects of the problem: drugs, poverty, television, child abuse. Only a handful tackles violence on a broader scale. Called "a major contribution to violence theory" by the OMNI Center for Peace; a brilliant synthesis of all available models;" & the most comprehensive model of violence enabling yet to be developed;" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of the Pulitzer-nominated On Killing, Transcending Violence stands out in offering both explanations & pragmatic solutions Violence comes in many shapes & sizes. It grows in almost any soil. Ethnic warfare & school shootings, crimes of passion & murder-for-hire seem to have little in common. One specialist blames overblown self-esteem while another points to deep-rooted shame. Criminologists, sociologists, police, peace activists, military historians & forensic psychologists bring contrasting perspectives to the table. Each explanation carries a large grain of truth, but when applied across the board quickly falls apart. One error has been an obsession with finding only one factor that can carry the entire blame. Competing theories often throw light on specific incidents but not on others These various perspectives become considerably more valuable when interwoven. Specifically, their shared characteristics & concerns can be sorted into up to 5 steps & 10 primary reinforcers. Variations on these 5 steps produce individually tailored paths to violence. That tapestry is laid out in the first half of Transcending Violence. In part two, Transcending Violence takes this confluence model & turns it on its head. By identifying specific steps and reinforcers for violence, we become empowered to invert them. We can disassemble the steps & eliminate the reinforcers. These actions apply at all levels, from the individual to the global.