Nine lives

Name: Nine lives
Author: James W. Messerschmidt
ISBN: 0813366666

by James W. Messerschmidt (2000)

Read Free Sample Buy on Amazon Audible Free Trial

About this book

Sociologists and criminologists have long known that there is a relationship between masculinity and crime, for gender has been advanced consistently as the strongest predictor of criminal involvement. Nine Lives, written by one of the most respected authorities on the subject of gender and crime, provides a fascinating account of the connection among adolescent masculinities, the body, peer abuse in schools, and violence. Drawing on penetrating life-history interviews of nine white, working-class, teenage boys, James W. Messerschmidt unravels some of the mysteries of teenage violence. This book is a comparative analysis of male sex offenders, assaultive offenders, and nonviolent boys, and has implications for understanding and preventing such national tragedies as the recent school shootings in the United States. In this captivating study, Messerschmidt talks to these boys in depth about their experiences, and he learns what they actually did and experienced in their lives that resulted in sexual or assaultive violence, or nonviolence. Prior to this study there was no information or empirical research on the agency of the adolescent-male offender, or on how such agency relates to masculinity and violence/nonviolence. Nine Lives is also unique because of its examination of how teenage males construct, interpret, and attempt to comprehend their own lives, and the world around them.Messerschmidt addresses the following chief questions: Why do some boys engage in violence and some boys do not? And, why do those boys who engage in violence commit different types? This differential use of violence is examined as a resource for "doing masculinity" in certain situations and under specific circumstances. Although none of the boys in Nine Lives were involved in school shootings, their life stories--and the social processes surrounding their violence--are relevant to understanding the school killings from Moses Lake, Washington to Littleton, Colorado. (Description from Amazon)

Setting / LocationGlobal

Story EraModern Era

Protagonist / CoreNine lives Lead Character

Themes & Moods

Self-Help & Mind Teenage boys Psychology Violence Crime Case studies Modern Era

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

Lustmord

Brian King

Lustmord - A compilation of essays, short stories, memoirs, confessions, letters, manifestoes, poetry, drawings, photographs and other works created by serial killers, mass murderers, cannibals, necrophiles, sexual sadists, psychopaths and assassins. These compelling documents are now available for the first time in one volume - an aesthetic testimony to the emotion and logic of a murderer's mind, a mind filled with terror and hatred, absurdity and horror, pathos and iniquity.

The measure of madness

Cheryl Paradis

Paradis draws back the curtain on the fascinating world of forensic psychology and revisits the most notorious and puzzling cases she has handled in her multifaceted career.--Introduction.

When God talks back

T.M. Luhrmann

Psychological anthropologist Luhrmann offers an extended case study examining how believers come to have faith in an active, present God despite secular pressures in contemporary America. Drawing on extensive interviews and personal experience among Vineyard Movement members, Luhrmann focuses on the use of prayer among charismatic evangelical Christians. Her work combines personal narratives and excerpts from bestselling evangelical how-to guides with theories and data from psychology.

Vampires, werewolves, and demons

[edited by] Richard Noll

Make no mistake, this is a serious, scholarly, altogether professional book--but it also has all the elements of a Stephen King novel. Filled with real-life tales of mystery, misery, and psychological mayhem, it challenges us to realize the unfathomable and to reexamine traditional definitions of fact and fantasy. And Richard Noll proves a sure-footed guide as he crosses the boundary of standard psychiatric nomenclature into the world of identity transformation and blood obsession. Meticulously researched and edited, the book brings together an international selection of contributions--historical and current--to reveal the depth and breadth of psychopathology as it manifests in vampirism, lycanthropy, and demonical possession. Mr. Noll's own explorations of the subjects weave together clinical, anthropological, and literary perspectives to create a rich and multitextured portrait of these psychiatric disturbances. As the labyrinthian nature of the human psyche unfolds within these pages, we are reminded again and again of the power of the beast that lurks beneath the surface of day-to-day existence. This is not a book for the faint of heart. But for those whose thirst for knowledge compells them to question the unquestionable, it is a unique and provocative exploration of disorders that lie beyond the reach of current genetic, biochemical, and neurophysiological understanding.