IF YOU ARE A PARENT, SCHOOLTEACHER, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, OR MENTAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDER, Toxic Families, Violent Lives lays out what you need to know aboutwhat is causing heightened levels of childhood/adolescent mental illness, behavioral disorders, juvenile alcohol and substance abuse, gang membership, school dropouts, teen pregnancies, and pervasive crime and violence. Toxic Families, Violent Lives gets at the root of the problem. It's all about the impediments to healthy childhood/adolescent physical, psychological, emotional, intellectual, and moral development. This book identifies a range of adverse childhood experiences that are the direct result of toxic family life rooted in poor parenting practices, and a range of dysfunctional and problematic parent behavior stemming from adult mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, obsessions, insecurities, depression, anxiety, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. Parents need to understand the importance of developing a parent-child attachment, and a child's self-control, empathy, and moral foundation. What can parents, schoolteachers, law enforcement, and mental health professionals do? Understand the pathways and pitfalls to healthy childhood / adolescent development and take an active role in that process. This book takes a read it, understand it, and apply it approach to the problem.