Recent surveys indicate that more than 80 percent of people in the United States believe that violent crime directly affects their lives and that crime is the country's most serious problem. Social scientists are well positioned to contribute to the public debate, because they have generated much knowledge that can be useful to policymakers. Individual chapters in this volume examine the impact of media sexual violence and the effectiveness of attempts to censor such material, the possible effects of gun control laws, the response of the legal system to abused children, harassment and violence directed against homosexuals, and the use of the battered woman syndrome in trials of women who kill their abusers. Additional chapters focus on how rape cases are processed by the legal system, research on the relationship between mental disorder and violence, police brutality, the response of the criminal justice system to gang violence, the legal system's handling of violent offenders, and capital punishment. 2 references