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Preventing Community Violence
Creating and maintaining a safe, nonviolent community is an important part of supporting children, youth, and families in preventing child abuse and neglect. Find resources and strategies to help reduce violence in the community, including State and local examples.
Violence Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Addresses violence as a public health issue, providing numerous resources on the effectiveness of violence prevention programs across the country and information on child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, suicide, and youth violence.
Community Violence Prevention as a Family Strengthening Strategy (PDF - 343 KB)
National Human Services Assembly (2005)
Highlights violence prevention initiatives that seek to engage diverse community stakeholders in order to create safe and thriving neighborhoods that support families and help them succeed.
Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
Provides databases of training materials and research on the effectiveness of violence prevention and intervention programs, including a national listing of programs.
Blueprints for Violence Prevention (PDF - 1120 KB)
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2004)
Identifies model and promising programs that prevent violence and drug use and treat youth with problem behaviors, presents lessons learned about program implementation, and provides recommendations for program designers, funders, and organizations.
Creating Safe Environments: Violence Prevention Strategies and Programs
Prevention Institute (2006)
Provides an overview of promising violence prevention initiatives, with a special focus on the primary prevention of violence among youth and adult intimate partners.
Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention
Doll, Bonzo, & Mercy (2007)
View Abstract
Examines the social and economic scope of unintentional and violent injury, reviews specific intervention programs to prevent violence and injury, and provides guidelines for implementing and improving existing programs.
Module 1: Orientation to Violence Prevention
PREVENT Institute
Helps the user learn about primary prevention, the public health approach to violence prevention, and how that approach can be used to develop primary violence prevention programs.
Preventing Violence: Research and Evidence-Based Intervention Strategies
Lutzker (Ed.) (2006)
View Abstract
Applies a public health model to the prevention of interpersonal violence and offers quantitative analyses from leaders in violence prevention with a strong scientific perspective.
Preventing Violence in Seven Countries: Global Convergence in Policies (PDF - 386 KB)
Junger, Feder, Clay, Côté, Farrington, & Freiberg
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 13(3-4), 2007
Provides a brief review and comparison of violence prevention policies in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Safe Start Center
Offers information on emerging practices and research to implement effective policy and practice interventions to minimize the impact of exposure to violence on children and their families. Includes information on the Safe Start Initiative.
Take Action
Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE)
Offers an online workspace where individuals, groups, organizations, and leaders in the community can collaborate to prevent youth violence. Resources on the site include State and local examples.
Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) Through Violence Prevention
Prevention Institute
Promotes collaboration across public and private sectors to maximize resources, ensure sustainability, and encourage effectiveness to prevent violence before it occurs. UNITY wants urban youth to thrive in safe environments with supportive relationships and opportunities for success.
Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability
World Health Organization
Includes numerous resources on violence prevention activities around the world, including policy development and capacity building.
Youth Violence: Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention—A Sourcebook for Community Action
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009)
Evaluates the effectiveness of specific violence prevention practices in four areas: parents and families, home visiting, social and conflict resolution skills, and mentoring. The site offers a comprehensive directory of resources for more information about programs that have used these practices.
State and local examples
A Lifetime Commitment to Violence Prevention: The Alameda County Blueprint (PDF - 263 KB)
Alameda County Board of Supervisors (2005)
Recommends ways to address community violence by meeting four key objectives: Promoting positive child and youth development, ensuring supported and functioning families, fostering safe and vibrant neighborhoods, and increasing program and government effectiveness.