The book argues that the upsurge of violence in American society basically results from the absence of the formative influence of the family unit on its members, especially children and adolescents. It regards the family as the primary social agency; poverty, drugs, access to guns, joblessness, poor education and inadequate housing are tangential issues, variables and facilitators, important as co-factors in the genesis of crime. The first four chapters examine violence from historical, sociological, psychological, etho-biological and statistical perspectives and reviews and critically appraises each argument. The second section deals with the major manifestations of crime against the person. It includes discussions of rape and domestic violence, the antisocial personality disorder, the prison and a brief historical analysis of serial killers. A section on facilitators of violence concerns alcohol and psychoactive drugs, guns and other root causes of violence. Note, tables, references, indexes