Menard and Covey examine how adolescent exposure to violence leads to problematic adult outcomes, e.g., intimate partner violence and substance use, as well as its adverse effect on positive beneficial outcomes, e.g., educational attainment and life satisfaction. This is a necessary study given that few focus specifically on exposure to violence during the adolescent years, an important transition period bridging childhood to adulthood, making it a time of vulnerability to the impact of abuse, neglect, adverse childhood experiences, and exposure to violence…. Ultimately, the authors find that direct experience of violence victimization is the best predictor of adverse adult outcomes and recommend solutions and interventions for favorable impact. This volume has implications for childhood studies, social work, criminal justice, education, and other areas from which supports and interventions originate. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals.

Choice Reviews

With a deep-dive into victimization experiences for cohorts that moved into adulthood during the pandemic of youth violence of the 1980s, Menard extends thinking on factors in adolescence that undermine personal and social well-being deep into later life. With the remarkably rich National Youth Survey Family Study as a base, the research makes a convincing case for the unique and powerful role of exposure to violence in the (re)production of inequalities in American society. It is an important message, one with broad implications that helps us understand the past and warns of challenges for the future.

Ross Macmillan, University of Limerick