TEEN VIOLENCE

Freelancer Lang uses journalistic techniques to make her points: clipped items and grim statistics portray a society coming apart—four times the number killed in Vietnam were killed with handguns in the 80's; a three-year-old held a knife to his mother's throat; etc. Both famous and unknown cases demonstrate the effects of the media; strains on the justice system; biological and psychological factors in violence; suicide; and connections between family disintegration and violence. Portions analyzing social anonymity and group violence are especially strong, as is a final chapter of recommendations—e.g., finding methods of restitution as alternatives to prison, and doing away with secrecy in juvenile courts. Although each chapter ends with a useful ``What to Do'' section of model programs for change, the tales of increasing brutality are so horrible that teen readers may well respond by avoiding other adolescents. For deeper understanding, choose Hyde & Forsyth's The Violent Mind (above). Resources; notes; bibliography; index. (Nonfiction. 12+)