Stanley Leone Jr.'s family was full of criminals, substance abusers, and philanderers. Beginning with a grandfather who was murdered by his lover's jealous husband-Stanley's father continued the cycle of abuse, crime, and addiction. He terrorized his own family, giving Stanley an image of masculinity that prized violence and control and left no room for love or tenderness. Enduring both verbal and physical abuse from his father, Stanley knew the destruction that a grown man could cause, and he resolved to be nothing like his tormentor.

By adolescence, however, Stanley had joined a gang and begun using drugs, and he discovered that he harbored the same anger his father so often exhibited. Sometimes that anger won out; sometimes Stanley's determination to be different held strong.

Choosing to become something different, something outside the cycle of violence, was not easy. But immersing himself in education helped, and so did examining who his father really was, with all his negative traits and redeeming qualities. Eventually Stanley found hope and began to forge a path to a better tomorrow.