In this book, the American psychiatrist James Gilligan proposes a radically new way of thinking about violence and how best to prevent it. Violence is most often addressed in moral and legal terms: 'How evil is this action, and how much punishment does it deserve?' Unfortunately, this way of thinking - the basis for our legal and political institutions - does nothing to shed light on the causes of violence." "Violent criminals have been Gilligan's teachers and he has been their student. Prisons are microcosms of the societies in which they exist, and examining them in detail, we can learn about society as a whole. Gilligan suggests treating violence as a public health problem. He advocates initiating radical social and economic change to attack the root causes of violence, focusing on those at increased risk of becoming violent, and dealing with those who are already violent as if they were in quarantine, rather than simply incarcerating them for reasons of punishment and revenge." "The twentieth century was steeped in violence. If we try to understand the violence of individuals, we may come to prevent the collective violence that threatens our future far more than all the individual crimes put together.

1. Shame and Death of the Self
2. The Social Causes of Violence
3. Violence as Proof of Masculinity
4. A New Theory of Violence
5. How to Create Less Violent Societies
6. Secondary Prevention: Early Intervention
7. Tertiary Prevention: Therapeutic Intervention
8. Who Benefits from Violence?