This book examines violence. It looks at the nature and types of violence, the causes of violence, and the emotional wake left by violent episodes. In the twentieth century, the world experienced two world wars and countless other wars. Many millions died violent deaths from murder, death squads, purges, riots, revolutions, ethnic cleansing, rape, robbery, domestic violence, suicide, gang violence, terrorist acts, genocide, and in many other ways. As we entered the twenty-first century, we experienced 9/11, the Red Lake School deaths, suicide bombers, and more mass death brought about by the actions of governments, revolutionaries, terrorists, and still more wars. The need to better understand violence, both lethal and non-lethal, to become aware of the many forms of violence, and to learn how to survive in the aftermath of violent death are the focus of Perspectives on Violence and Violent Death. People are urgently seeking answers to these problems of violence, in its many forms. Some individuals and groups work to limit violence in a particular area. Others want to address broader issues, to limit violence in all of its many forms. If people do not want violence to continue at its present level, decisions have to be made. We know that no decision can be better than the information on which that decision is based. That is the seminal idea that led to the writing of this volume. A well-known and well-respected group of contributors provides information that can assist decision-makers with their difficult task.

Robert G. Stevenson, Ed.D., has been an educator for almost four decades. He is co-founder of the Center for Help in Time of Loss, was chairman of the University Seminar on Death at Columbia (1984-1995), and is Assistant Professor in the graduate counseling program of Mercy College, New York. He has published more than 60 articles and five books on loss and grief. He is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. He received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross, M.A. from Montclair State University, and M.A.T. and Ed.D. from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Stevenson is a certified thanatologist and has served on the ADEC board of directors and as Education Institute chairman. He has been honored for his work by the New Jersey Professional Counselors' Association, the N.J. Governor's Office, and the N.J. Department of Education. He was recipient of the 1997 Wendel Williams Outstanding Educator Award and the 1993 ADEC National Death Educator Award and was awarded the New York State Defense of Liberty medal for his contributions after 9/11. Gerry R. Cox, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Director of the Center for Death Education and Bioethics. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Ball State University. His teaching focuses on theory/theory construction, deviance and criminology, death and dying, social psychology, and minority peoples. He has been publishing materials since 1973 in sociology and teaching-oriented professional journals. He is a member of the International Work Group on Dying, Death, and Bereavement; the Midwest Sociological Society; the American Sociological Association; the International Sociological Association; Phi Kappa Phi; the Great Plains Sociological Society; and the Association for Death Education and Counseling.