Let me first start off saying that I am horrified that we need a book on how to end gun violence/mass shootings. On the other hand FINALLY there is a book on mass shootings and what can be done about them.
This book is so emotional, clinical, and very thorough.
My hometown is Bemidji, MN.......my best friend lives on the Red Lake Reservation. Her mom was a teacher at the time of the Red Lake shooting. The chaos, the fear, the anxiety of waiting for word to see if my friends survived was enormous.
I felt this book like a punch in the gut.
The greatest thing that this book does is say THERE IS HOPE to end mass shootings. WE ALL NEED TO WORK to end them.
I love that the book says we can always do more. We can start engaging with each other again. We gain really focus on mental illness and VOTE to enhance and get more mental health services, we can do more for gun laws.

This book is a MUST Read for everyone in society.

The one part of the book that will stay with me, is when the authors talked about hard targets and designing schools with more curves to prevent straight line of sight.
The authors counter.....the school mass shooter will go to that school, will know the drills, they are part of the school.

I had never thought of it like that.

Thank you to the publisher and to netgalley for allowing me this ARC for this honest review.

There's really no question that I am the desired market for Jillian Peterson and James Densley's engaging and informative "The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic."

"The Violence Project" is borne out of the frustration both Peterson and Densley felt over the reactionary policies and actions often birthed out of yet another mass shooting. These policies and actions never really were converted into meaningful action and, of course, inevitably we would be having the same discussions after the next mass shooting.

As a book, "The Violence Project" is a refreshingly engaging and well-informed journey toward charting new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the contagion of violence.

Peterson is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University. She has led large-scale studies on mental illness and crime, school shootings, and mass violence.

Densley is a professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University who is known for his international work on gangs, criminal networks, violent extremism, and policing.

Together, they created The Violence Project. The Violence Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center known worldwide for its work on mass shooting prevention.

This points, perhaps, to the reason that "The Violence Project" reads so beautifully yet powerfully. While it is not what I'd call apolitical, it is unquestionably nonpartisan. There is a tendency in even the best books around the subject of violence to end up taking sides. Perhaps because they are researchers, Peterson and Densley instead focus squarely on the issue itself and avoid the taking of sides. In fact, many of the ideas and solutions presented in "The Violence Project" are surprisingly devoid of political angles or preachiness. In place of partisanship, Peterson and Densley infuse "The Violence Project" with research, interviews with perpetrators themselves (many of whom were surprisingly cooperative with the research), and extensive studies regarding the impact of certain preventative measures.

In many ways, I was delighted by how incredibly matter-of-fact is the writing in "The Violence Project." At times, I could picture Peterson and Densley before me with this look of "No, really. This works and we can prove it."

It's not often that I read a book about violence or gun violence or mass shootings and end up feeling empowered, but such is the case here. I felt empowered after reading "The Violence Project."

I've spent a good majority of my life as an activist in the area of violence prevention having started out in the area of child abuse prevention before broadening into domestic violence and having a strong focus on violence involving children. The rhetoric is hot and heavy - especially if one brings in issues such as gun law reform. "The Violence Project" is well-researched and it's also accessible in terms of its language and literary style. As a project, The Violence Project is the first comprehensive database of mass shooters. The project has moved Peterson and Densley closer toward their vision of establishing the root causes of mass shootings and figuring out how to stop them by examining the data points in the lives of perpetrators. In "The Violence Project," they interview perpetrators, those who knew/know the perpetrators, victims' families, first responders, and recognized experts to gain an understanding of the real stories underneath the sensationalized media. Rather than "thoughts and prayers," Peterson and Densley have come up with data-driven solutions.

Both intellectually challenging and emotionally resonant, "The Violence Project" is a mandatory read for those concerned about the cycle of violence, and in this case mass shootings, and those who consider them to be inevitable.

Mass shootings are not inevitable. Peterson and Densley have proven it.