The editor first examines aspects of and characteristics of violence and aggression that make it a concern of health practitioners, both in the diagnosis and treatment of offenders and victims. Chapters on the origins and causes of violence include a discussion of social dominance as a way of understanding the fundamental purpose of aggressive behavior, including fighting. An analysis of aggression at various levels of social complexity focuses on individual aggression, aggression between groups, and factors that maintain the institution of war. Other chapters on the origin and causes of violence consider the roots and role of violence in development, contemporary psychological research into violence, and women as violent offenders and violent patients. Chapters that address mental disorder and violence consider the link between mental illness and violence, violence as an expression of individual personality dynamics, alcohol-related violence, and drug-related aggression and violence. Three chapters on victims and survivors of violence discuss the management of disasters and stress in police officers involved in the aftermath of violence, children as victims and survivors, and everyday violence and the experience of crime. Two chapters on the evaluation of the clinician's role address reconviction as a measure of psychiatric efficacy and the furthering of medical and psychological understanding of violence. Chapter references