Gender Heterosexuality and Youth Violence: The Struggle for Recognition

About this book

In Gender Heterosexuality and Youth Violence James W. Messerschmidt unravels some of the mysteries of teenage violence. Written by one of the most respected scholars on the subject of gendered crime this book provides a fascinating account of the connections among adolescent masculinities and femininities bullying in schools the body heterosexuality and violence and nonviolence. After an introduction that lays out key concepts including a revised structured action theory Messerschmidt shares six compelling life-histories of white working-class boys and girls who have all been victims of severe forms of bullying at school. The book is unique in its comparative approach between violent and nonviolent youth between boys and girls as offenders and non-offenders between assaultive and sexual violence and among a variety of masculinities and femininities. It also addresses how heterosexuality is related to sex gender and certain forms of violence or non-violence. The penetrating life histories are partially drawn from Messerschmids previous books Nine Lives and Flesh and Blood as well as several completely new life-history interviews. The books cutting-edge conceptualization of these life histories provides novel insight into the vexing question of youth violence.