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Fact Sheet
At A Glance: Messages
GENERAL MESSAGES
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Caution-The youth violence epidemic is not over:
There is good news today in that declines since 1993 in key markers of
serious youth violence are real and substantial. Youth homicide,
robbery, and rape arrest rates in 1999 are actually lower than they
were in 1983, prior to the violence epidemic. Weapons carrying and use
in violent crimes have declined. At the same time, however, rates of
arrest for aggravated assault remain nearly 70 percent higher than in
1983, and self report studies indicate that the proportion of youth
involved in violent behavior and the rates of violent offending have
not declined since the peak years in the mid 1990's. There is
considerable evidence that youth involvement in serious forms of
violent behavior is quite stable over time and remains a serious
national problem.
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Optimism-Our success in developing knowledge and tools to
prevent serious violence gives grounds for hope and optimism:
Research evaluations have clearly shown that specific intervention
programs are highly effective in preventing serious violent behavior
and/or eliminating major risk factors for violence. Because these
studies have met rigorous scientific standards, we can implement these
selected intervention programs on a national scale with a high degree
of confidence. There is reason to believe that other interventions may
also be effective, but additional evaluation work is necessary to
establish their effectiveness and potential for wide dissemination and
implementation.
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The Major Challenge: To direct-and redirect-resources
toward effective, research based prevention strategies and programs.
Most of the violence prevention strategies and interventions currently
employed at both the national and local levels either have not been
evaluated with rigor or have been evaluated and found to be
ineffective. The Nation cannot afford to waste resources on
ineffective or harmful interventions and strategies-or to further
jeopardize the well being of youth who may be assigned to ineffective
programs. It is essential to disseminate scientifically validated
studies, to provide resources and incentives for their implementation,
and to provide schools and communities the resources needed to
evaluate programs that appear promising.
TARGETED MESSAGES
For Families:
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The most critical risk factor for violence for your children is the
behavior of their peers. Know who your kids associate with and
encourage healthy peer relationships.
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The strongest risk factors during childhood are involvement in
serious but not necessarily violent criminal behavior, substance use,
being male, physical aggression, low family socioeconomic status or
poverty and antisocial parents - all individual or family attributes
or conditions. During adolescence, the strongest risk factors are weak
ties to conventional peers, ties to antisocial or delinquent peers,
belonging to a gang, and involvement in other criminal acts.
For School Administrators and Teachers:
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Be attentive to the social climate in your schools and be honest
about problems you see. According to kids' own reports, bullying and
drugs are the major problems they have to deal with at school, but
these often are not acknowledged by the adults in the school system.
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A wide variety of school based programs are very effective in
dealing with problems including drug use, bullying and peer relations,
and competence/skill?building.
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Today, we can point to a lot of good news. Weapons carrying at
school has dropped dramatically, and schools today are generally very
safe when compared to other places where kids hang out.
For the Community:
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Violence is not an intractable problem.
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In responding to violent youth, we need to correct the overuse of
the criminal justice system and under?use of effective intervention
programs.
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Communities should implement programs that address both individual
risks and environmental conditions, particularly building individual
skills and competencies, teaching parent effectiveness and changing
the type and level of peer group involvement.
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Program effectiveness depends as much on the quality of
implementation as on the type of intervention. Many programs are
ineffective not because their strategy is misguided, but because the
quality of implementation is poor.
For the Public Health Community:
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There is need for more research in all domains of public health
research: 1) improve data systems; 2) refine our understanding of risk
factors; 3) improve the quality of program evaluations; 4) place
greater emphasis on high quality implementation of effective programs.
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Most effective programs involve a comprehensive approach, and do
not focus simply on one factor.
Last revised: January 4, 2007
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