The book is divided into 6 parts and includes 24 chapters. Part I (Overview and Theoretical Perspectives) consists of an overview of the field, followed by four chapters that present the sociological, behavioral, psychodynamic, and biological perspectives. Part II includes three chapters (firesetting, adolescent sex offenders, and child and adolescent homicide) related to the largest growing violent offender population in the Nation: children and youth. Part III (Homicide) contains papers on topics that have received recent attention from the public and media: serial murder and sexual homicide, mass and spree murder, and women who kill. Part IV (Sexual Deviance and Assault) includes chapters on paraphilias, rape, and child molestation, all of which have received considerable attention from mental health professionals for several years. Part V provides in-depth presentations on the major forms of family violence: child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect, as well as spouse and elder abuse. Part VI, which focuses on "Special Topics," contains six chapters on a variety of issues that range from neurological factors to neuropsychological assessment, as well as the prediction of dangerousness in violent offenders. For individual chapters, see NCJ-179663-81. Chapter references and a subject index