Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: Girls and Violence in America [Hardcover]

"This provides answers."
—Bill Cosby

"This book provides solid insights and suggestions as to steps we must take to address girl violence before it gets out of hand. I applaud the authors’ work, commitment, and their heartfelt and practical advice."
—From the Foreword by Janet Reno

"This book is a much–needed wake–up call for everyone who still believes that violence is something girls just don’t do. Parents and teachers both will be grateful for its insights into how to identify negative influences and what adults can do to help."
—Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children’s Defense Fund

"A timely book! The authors warn of the distressing increase in violence among girls. Their recommendations can help parents and policymakers stem the tide of this frightening trend."
—Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Judge Baker Children’s Center, Boston, Massachusetts

Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice is a groundbreaking book that offers parents and teachers a primer for understanding and preventing the increasing incidents of physical violence––hazing, brutality, fighting, weapons, murder––by young girls. Written by Drs. Deborah Prothrow–Stith and Howard R. Spivak—the renowned Harvard– and Tufts–based experts on preventing youth violence—this important book offers a plan to help our daughters become strong, confident, powerful, and independent young women without being violent.

Until recently, it was assumed that boys were the primary, if not exclusive, perpetrators of violence. Boys are still primary, but things are changing. There has been a tremendous statistical increase in the incidence of physical violence generated by pubescent and teenage girls, both against one another and occasionally exploding against the rest of the world. This violence will not be confined, as many think, to poor inner–city girls but will reach (just as it did with boys) all kinds of suburban, rural, and urban communities across a broad spectrum of demographics.

Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice is a groundbreaking book that offers parents and teachers a primer for understanding and preventing the increasing incidents of physical violence––hazing, brutality, fighting, weapons, murder––by young girls. Written by Drs. Deborah Prothrow–Stith and Howard R. Spivak—the renowned Harvard– and Tufts–based experts on preventing youth violence—this important book offers a plan to help our daughters become strong, confident, powerful, and independent young women without being violent.

The book is well grounded in scientific data and filled with illustrative examples of girls’ real–life stories of violence. The stories cover a range of issues and risk factors that focus on girls’ violent and aggressive behavior. Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice offers a plan for creating a girl–oriented approach to preventing violence and answers such questions as

•  How is the violent behavior of girls different from that of boys?
• What can parents do to prevent aggressive behavior in girls?
• What can schools and educators do to prevent violent behavior?
• What can communities do to address the issue of violence and girls?
• Is it possible to reverse this trend?

 Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice is a call to action for changing our attitudes, improving our parenting skills, confronting our cultural norms and media images, and taking responsibility for all our children.

Deborah Prothrow–Stith, M.D., is associate dean for faculty development and professor of public health practice and founding director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard University School of Public Health. Prothrow–Stith is a pioneer of the effort in America to understand youth violence as a public health problem—not just a law enforcement problem.

Howard R. Spivak, M.D., is chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and vice president for community health programs at the New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also professor of pediatrics and community health at Tufts University School of Medicine and director of the Tufts University Center for Children.
Prothrow–Stith and Spivak coauthored Murder Is No Accident: Understand and Preventing Youth Violence in America (Jossey–Bass, 2004).