NCJ Number
184573
Date Published
August 1999
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This conference presentation discusses the principles of public health that apply to the development of prevention polices for domestic violence; a panel discusses issues pertinent to the prevention of domestic violence.
Abstract
The first public health principle of prevention is that this is a "cause-and-effect world." Things happen for reasons, and if these reasons can be identified and understood, the effects can be changed. The second principle is that the focus should be on future health, i.e., policymakers should focus on what is going to happen, not only on what is happening now. This involves focusing on children and how their future can be guided. The third principle is that public health is everyone's health, including the least advantaged and the disadvantaged; therefore, prevention policy must be comprehensive. The fourth principle is that change is constant, and knowledge and research must keep pace with changes. The panel members focus on the importance of challenging every manifestation of popular culture that fosters violence as acceptable behavior in a relationship. A victim of domestic violence advises that victims must speak out about what has happened to them as a means of informing the public and policymakers about the need for preventive action. Another panel member discusses the importance of educating, agitating, protesting, and protecting in order to challenge every manifestation of domestic violence and the factors that fuel it.
Date Published: August 1, 1999