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A Timeline of Violence as a Public Health Issue

Phase One: Building the Case for Violence Prevention
1979 The United States (U.S.) Surgeon General's Report, Healthy People, identified stress and violent behavior among the key priority areas for public health. Healthy People emphasized that "the health community cannot ignore the consequences of violent behavior in efforts to improve health."
1980 A landmark Department of Health and Human Services report, Promoting Health/Preventing Disease: Objectives for the Nation, established goals for violence prevention.
1981 CDC epidemiologists began one of the first collaborative efforts with law enforcement to investigate a series of child murders in Georgia.
1983 CDC established the Violence Epidemiology Branch to focus its public health efforts in violence prevention.
1985 The Surgeon General's Workshop on Violence and Public Health focused the attention of the public health world on violence and encouraged all health professionals to become involved.
1985 CDC investigated a pattern of suicides in Texas, the first demonstrated use of field epidemiological techniques to identify suicide clusters.
1985 The Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health was released and underscored the importance of addressing interpersonal violence as a public health problem and identified homicide as a major contributor to health disparities among African-Americans.
1986 CDC established the Division of Injury Epidemiology and Control.
1989 The Secretary of Health and Human Service's Task Force released the Report on Youth Suicide.
 
Phase Two: Conducting and Synthesizing the Science
1990 "Violent and Abusive Behavior" was included as 1 of 22 public health priority areas in Healthy People 2000, the national disease-prevention and health-promotion strategy. It called for "cooperation and integration across public health, health care, mental health, criminal justice, social service, education, and other relevant sectors."
1992 Congress approved appropriations for youth violence prevention.
1992 A landmark issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association addressed violence as a public health issue.
1993 CDC established the Division of Violence Prevention, one of three within the newly created National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The Division leads CDC's efforts to prevent injuries and deaths caused by violence.
1993 CDC published The Prevention of Youth Violence: A Framework for Community Action to mobilize communities to effectively address the epidemic of youth violence sweeping the nation.
1994 Congress approved appropriations for intimate partner violence prevention.
1994 CDC and the National Institute of Justice collaborated on the National Violence against Women Survey. The survey, conducted in 1995-1996, provided the first national data on the incidence and prevalence of violence against women.
1996 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that "violence is a leading worldwide public health problem."
1996 Congress passed funding for rape prevention education block grants.
1999 CDC published Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action.
1999 The U.S. Surgeon General released the Call to Action to Prevent Suicide report.
 
Phase Three: Moving Toward Implementation
2000 WHO created the Department for Injuries and Violence Prevention.
2000 CDC received congressional appropriations for the National Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention.
2001 The U.S. Surgeon General released a report on youth violence.
2001 The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
2001 CDC's Division of Violence Prevention is reorganized to include the Etiology and Surveillance Branch, the Prevention Development and Evaluation Branch, and the Program Implementation and Dissemination Branch. The Division continues to encourage excellence in all areas of public health directed at preventing violence.
2001 First congressional appropriations for child maltreatment prevention approved.
2002 WHO released the World Report on Violence and Health.
2002 The National Violent Death Reporting System launched in 6 states. This was the first state-based surveillance system to link data from multiple sources with the goal of enhancing violence prevention efforts.
2004 The National Violent Death Reporting System expanded to include 17 states.
2006 CDC launched Choose Respect, the first national communication initiative designed to prevent unhealthy relationship behaviors and dating abuse.
2007 CDC published a study that estimated the cost of violence in the United States exceeds $70 billion each year.

 
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Content Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention
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