An unfortunate fact of life for educators and prospective college, elementary, and secondary teachers in the United States is the pandemic of violence in our nation’s schools. Since the massive media attention surrounding the shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, administrators and teachers have met with increasing urgency from concerned parents and public officials over the measures they are adopting to reduce the level of violence in their schools. While studies have shown that school crime is declining, the prevalence of violence in US schools remains a difficult problem to solve because it ordinarily comes in more insidious and mundane forms than high-profile shooting rampages: bullying, theft, vandalism, sexual harassment, cyber-offenses, dating violence, fighting, race-related offenses, verbal abuse, gang intimidation, and drug and alcohol abuse, to name a few. The problem, moreover, affects everyone, not just the immediate victim. Teachers quit, students don’t show up, classrooms are disrupted, activities are reduced and cut, and the school’s reputation suffers. More frightening is the frequency of homicide, serious assaults, and sexual assault. An unhappy daily routine at many schools is students’ having to deal with lockdown, security checks, metal detectors, and guards and police officers. School violence and crime, moreover, is a global phenomenon that affects many different schools at every socioeconomic level.

A welcome addition to the literature, therefore, is this unique and comprehensive two-volume offering from reference leader ABC-Clio. Edited by Laura L. Finley, an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida, the encyclopedia is a convenient one-stop reference for criminal justice, sociology, education, and law enforcement students. It will undoubtedly serve as a timely and important source for researchers; for school administrators, school board members, teachers and parents; for law-enforcement and public-service officials; and for concerned general readers.

Organized alphabetically, the encyclopedia covers a wide variety of issues including specific incidents, theories, preventive measures, important agencies, international cases, and significant people in eighty entries written by an impressive list of contributing scholars and subject-specialists. Articles are informative and engaging and end with bibliographies for further reading. The encyclopedia provides high-quality photographs that accompany the text and a number of user-friendly features including an alphabetical list of entries; appendices featuring discussion questions, primary source documents, and Supreme Court decisions; a comprehensive bibliography including films; and a good general index with cross references. Produced on high-quality acid free paper and sturdily bound, the encyclopedia should hold up for many years. It should be noted, in addition, that the encyclopedia is available from ABC-Clio in an electronic version.

Finley’s work is unrivaled in its scope and depth as a reference encyclopedia. Nonetheless, a number of current sources will serve as valuable companion volumes for any collection serving interested readers. William L. Turk’s School Crime and Policing (Prentice Hall, 2003) is a hands-on treatment of school violence as it relates to the broader subject of juvenile crime. It is written from a criminal justice perspective and offers a number of preventive strategies and guidelines for handling criminal situations, suggestions for providing a safe school environment, and details of the school crime phenomenon. Violence in America’s Schools: Understanding, Prevention, and Responses (R&L Education, 2009) by psychologist Murray R. Thomas, seeks to understand the foundations of school violence and offers methods for coping with a variety of violence issues. Twemlow and Sacco’s Preventing Bullying and School Violence (American Psychiatric Publishers, 2011) is a new examination of school violence from a psychological perspective. The book is written by two prominent psychiatrists specializing in bully prevention and research. The book offers a number of pragmatic solutions including an understanding of the bullying process, the role of community, identifying at-risk children, therapeutic mentoring, the concept of wellness, and other intervention strategies. There are, in addition, a number of practical guidebooks like this that are specific to bullying and harassment.

Finley’s work, however, stands alone, and as such, is highly recommended for all academic, public, and school libraries.