Preventing Violence

James Gilligan

Thames and Hudson, £6.99, pp 144

ISBN 0 500 28278 1

Rating:

Jim Gilligan knows something about violence. For 25 years, he has been directing provision of psychiatric care to inmates of Massachusetts prisons. He advises presidents and prime ministers; he influences policy and educates others. So when Jim Gilligan says he knows how to prevent (or at least reduce) violence, you want to listen.

Dr Gilligan has a number of radical ideas. He argues that traditional approaches to violence prevention, which emphasise punishment, actually make violence worse; and the more severe the punishment, the worse the violence grows. Violence is more likely where there is a culture of shame. Key risk factors for shame include …