Hazing is a complex issue that affects individuals and communities in many different ways. Building awareness and promoting prevention begins with understanding. The books listed below offer valuable perspectives on the history, impact, and dynamics of hazing, along with insights and strategies for creating safer, more respectful environments. Whether you’re exploring the topic for the first time or deepening your knowledge, these resources provide a strong foundation for informed action.
Bullying Leads To Hazing: Disrupting Middle School Patterns of Power, Silence, and Belonging (The Harm We Ignore Book 1)
by DJ Williams
Hazing doesn’t begin in college. It starts much earlier — in middle school, when belonging is twisted into control and silence allows cruelty to grow unchecked.
In Bullying Leads To Hazing: Disrupting Middle School Patterns of Power, Silence, and Belonging, author and advocate DJ Williams traces the dangerous cycle from bullying to hazing and ultimately to tragedy. Drawing from both lived experience and prevention research, Williams offers parents, educators, and leaders a compassionate but urgent guide to recognizing warning signs and stepping in before harm escalates.
This is the first book in The Harm We Ignore series, a four-part roadmap uncovering how bullying and hazing persist — and how adults can disrupt the cycle at every stage.
Discretion: Hazing. Pledging. Intake.
by Rasheed Ali Cromwell
Discretion: Hazing. Pledging. Intake. is a powerful book that provides a fresh and unique perspective on an age-old problem. Blending African tradition of storytelling while debunking nine myths about hazing, it empowers the reader to have authentic and holistic dialogue about increasing the safety and well-being of our community. By following Imani— our fictional main character student—from the start of her new member journey, readers get a real-time, first-person perspective, broadening their view and gaining insight into “why” she makes some of the decisions she does along the way. It also empowers readers with the necessary tools to deconstruct and tackle this complex problem. Whether you are a Black Greek or a member of a culturally based fraternal organization, someone who is interested in joining, or you serve in a role that supports members, you will find value in this beautifully blended and culturally rich fiction, non-fiction, and self-help book.
A Coach’s Guide to Hazing Prevention
by Timothy C. Marchell, Norman J. Pollard, R. Brian Crow, Janet P. Judge
This comprehensive guide provides invaluable and easy-to-use tools and tips to help prevent hazing in sports. It is ideal for anyone in intercollegiate and high school athletics and includes practical guidance on:
- What hazing is and how it occurs in athletics
- Practical steps you can take to prevent hazing in your program
- The reasons teams and individuals haze and ways to overcome them
- Checklists, action plans, discussion guides and tools for prevention
Since hazing results from multiple factors, effective prevention requires us to implement multiple strategies. This guide covers:
- Leadership and Culture Change
- Positive Team-Building Strategies
- Education and Support for Everyone Involved
- Policy, Enforcement, and Reporting Best Practices
Dismantling Hazing in Greek-Letter Organizations: Effective Practices for Prevention, Response, and Campus Engagement
by Jason L. Meriwether
More than half of college students are hazed in the process of joining student organizations, while 7 out of every 10 students who pledge or rush a fraternity or sorority experience some form of hazing or violence. In recent years, numerous student deaths caused by hazing have called into question the value of these organizations, while college leaders seek solutions that keep students safe. Dismantling Hazing in Greek-Letter Organizations offers practical strategies to address the complexities of hazing culture and the challenges associated with recruitment and initiation in varying contexts. Each chapter focuses on the nuanced elements of hazing within sorority and fraternity subcultures and explores the hidden harms inside these secretive and tradition-laden systems. This engaging publication shares insights into fraternal and sororal systems by examining under-researched elements of hazing and challenging unacceptable practices within those systems. Written by educators in practice who work directly with fraternity and sorority members, national organizations, and campus leaders, the book presents an extensive selection of effective prevention-based practices that all stakeholders—both on and off campus—can use. This text provides readers with new educative models and tools to mitigate the impact of “tradition” as it competes with the value for life within Greek-letter organizations with one ultimate goal: to save the lives of students.
Hazing: Destroying Young Lives
by Hank Nuwer
For decades, young men and women endured degrading and dangerous rituals in order to join sororities and fraternities while college administrators blindly accepted their consequences. In recent years, these practices have spilled over into the mainstream, polluting military organizations, sports teams, and even secondary schools. In Destroying Young Lives: Hazing in Schools and the Military, Hank Nuwer assembles an extraordinary cast of analysts to catalog the evolution of this dangerous practice, from the first hazing death at Cornell University in 1863 to present day tragedies. This hard-hitting compilation addresses the numerous, significant, and often overlooked impacts of hazing, including including sexual exploitation, mental distress, depression, and even suicide.
Destroying Young Lives is a compelling look at how universities, the military, and other social groups can learn from past mistakes and protect their members going forward.
Grieve Like A Mother, Survive Like A Warrior: Stories & Strategies of Healing After Child Loss
by Warrior Moms: Michele Davis, Amy Durham, Jenny Stanley, Alison Chick, Brandi Couey, Rae Ann Gruver, Christi Howard, Christine McHenry, Robyn Noe, Lisa Raber, Dele Rech, Cathy Semeria, Emily Simmons, and Joan Wasser
This book includes a chapter by Rae Ann Gruver about her experience of losing her son, Max, to a hazing incident.
When the unimaginable happens, how do you find your way forward? For fourteen mothers from the Warrior Moms of North Atlanta support group, the answer came through sharing their journeys together. Grieve Like a Mother, Survive Like a Warrior brings you into the sacred space where these mothers, each having lost a child, reveal how we can rise to find new meaning from the depths of our agonizing pain.
“This book reveals the raw, unvarnished reality of grief – and also illuminates the courage, resilience, and strength that emerges from the deepest pain.” — Dr. Natalie Lecy, LCSW
