NCJ Number
196468
Date Published
2001
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This report contains three articles, one each on the topics of youth violence, intimate partner and sexual violence, and suicide and suicidal behavior.
Abstract
The article on suicide and suicidal behavior discusses the scope of the problem of suicide and reports on five contributions that the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is making to understanding and preventing suicide, which include evaluation and demonstration of prevention methods, description and tracking of such behavior, increasing knowledge of causes of and consequences of suicidal behavior, communicating scientific information about suicide prevention, and coordinating a wide array of suicide-prevention programs. The report on what is being done by NCIPC to work toward a solution of intimate partner and sexual violence includes an overview of the scope of the problem, and indicates that a scope of definitions for intimate partner violence has been developed and the same is being done presently for sexual violence. A survey has been completed, by the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) which provides the estimated levels of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking. Individual risk and protective factors that affect escalation and the stopping of violence have been identified, and a case-control study showed that there was a strong link between violence and suicidal behavior by victims, particularly by Black women. On the subject of youth violence, a review of the scope of the problem and its effect on youth as both victims and perpetrators is included. Also, statistics are included on youth as victims and also youth as perpetrators of violence. Four steps being taken by NCIPC to seek solutions are outlined, such as conducting a second national study to determine if there has been a significant rise in school-associated violent deaths. Another step is identifying risk factors that increase the likelihood of experiencing youth violence, such as a study of lethal and non-lethal violence among teens which indicates that homicides are contagious under conditions such as concentrated poverty and weak family structure. The third step is devoted to developing and evaluating interventions to prevent violence by funding projects across the country to study a broad range of promising interventions. And, lastly, the NCIPC is disseminating information on the best violence-prevention programs. In order to aid researchers and prevention specialists, a compendium of assessment tools has been published containing questions, scales, and instruments for measuring attitudinal, psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors related to violence.