NCJ Number
185567
Date Published
1998
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents an overview of the public health approach to preventing violent behaviors among youth, with emphasis on why violence represents a public health problem and how the tools of public health can aid the design, implementation, and evaluation of meaningful school-based and community-based interventions.
Abstract
Intentional interpersonal violence disproportionately involves youth as both perpetrators and victims. Levels of violence in and around schools have increased along with increases of levels of violence in general society. Violence is a public health concern due to its adverse impacts on the health and well-being of children and youth and the success of other public health efforts based on primary prevention. The public health model entails a community-based approach; health event surveillance; epidemiologic analysis; intervention design and evaluation; and a combination of outreach, education, and information dissemination. Applying the public health model to youth violence requires the tracking of trends and the identification of risk factors, vectors, and influences, including domestic assault, the community context, schools and peers, drug and alcohol use, media violence, the presence of guns, and biological influences. Challenges to the public health approach include social and economic problems, as well as the deterioration of public health structures and functions. Nevertheless, public health approach uses a tested and systematic method that ensures that interventions rest on extensive data and the evaluation of solutions. Figures and 26 references