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The development of work on direct protective factors for youth violence has been delayed by conceptual and methodologic problems that have constrained the design, execution, and interpretation of prevention research. These problems are described in detail and actively addressed in review and analytic papers developed by the CDC's Expert Panel on Protective Factors for youth violence. The present paper synthesizes findings from these papers, specifies their implications for public health research and prevention strategies to reduce youth violence, and suggests directions for future research., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The CDC Expert Panel on Protective Factors for Youth Violence Perpetration was convened to review and advance the status of etiologic and prevention research on direct protective and buffering protective factors for youth violence perpetration. The current paper introduces Phase One of the panel's work, which focuses on direct protective factors and includes the papers in this supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. This paper provides the context for the panel's work, describes its practical and theoretic importance, and summarizes why independently defined direct protective factors and risk factors are important for the advancement of our understanding of youth violence and its prevention. Lastly, this paper briefly describes the organization of the work of the panel as well as the research products that comprise the contents of the supplement., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

This paper describes the targeted intervention component of GREAT Schools and Families. The intervention-GREAT Families-is composed of 15 weekly multiple family group meetings (e.g., 4-6 families per group) and addresses parenting practices (discipline, monitoring), family relationship characteristics (communication, support, cohesion), parental involvement and investment in their child's schooling, parent and school relationship building, and planning for the future. High-risk youth and their families-students identified by teachers as aggressive and socially influential among their peers-were targeted for inclusion in the intervention. The paper describes the theoretical model and development of the intervention. Approaches to recruitment, engagement, staff training, and sociocultural sensitivity in work with families in predominantly poor and challenging settings are described. The data being collected throughout the program will aid in examining the theoretical and program processes that can potentially mediate and moderate effects on families. This work can inform us about necessary approaches and procedures to engage and support families in efforts to reduce individual and school grade-level violence and aggression.

This paper provides an overview of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, a 5-year project to compare the effects of a universal intervention (all students and teachers) and a targeted intervention (family program for high-risk children) on reducing aggression and violence among sixth graders. First, the paper describes the role of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in developing the project. Second, it details the background of researchers at the four participating universities (Duke University, The University of Georgia, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Virginia Commonwealth University) and examines the characteristics of the selected schools (n=37). Finally, the paper summarizes the theoretical perspectives guiding the work, the development of interventions based on promising strategies, the decision to intervene at the school level, the research questions guiding the project, the research design, and the measurement process for evaluating the results of the program.

This paper describes the theoretical basis and content of the universal student component of the Guiding Responsibility and Expectations for Adolescents for Today and Tomorrow (GREAT) Schools and Families' middle school violence prevention program for changing school climate. The GREAT Student Program builds on and extends the content of the sixth grade Responding In Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP-6) social-cognitive violence prevention program through an expanded conceptual framework that focuses on changing school norms and explicitly incorporates cultural and contextual goals. The program consists of twenty 40-minute lessons taught by a trained facilitator on a weekly basis during the school day.

This paper summarizes some organizational, scientific, and policy lessons that have emerged in the formation and conducting of the collaboration of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project. We contend that these lessons are valuable for other collaborations and are important for furthering the utility of scientific efforts. A central contention is that large-scale efforts such as this collaboration are underused but are essential for efficient advancement of knowledge about preventing youth violence.

This paper discusses the procedures and measures that were developed and utilized to evaluate the impact of the GREAT (Guiding Responsibility and Expectations in Adolescents Today and Tomorrow) programs in the Multisite Violence Prevention Project (MVPP). First, we describe the three different samples used to examine the impact of the programs, and the different sources of data used to assess these samples. Next, we outline procedures used to collect and manage the data. In the last section, we summarize the final set of measures selected for use in this study. Throughout the paper, we highlight ways in which the participating institutions collaborated to develop consistent procedures for use across the four sites. Overall, the paper provides important information related to the evaluation of violence prevention efforts, particularly for working effectively in multisite collaborative studies.

The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the challenges encountered and lessons learned while providing and evaluating a violence-prevention program for and with ethnically diverse populations in child care settings. The paper discusses Safe Start, a violence prevention education program for child care staff and parents, and the evaluation of the program. Safe Start was designed to include culturally relevant content to increase cultural awareness for child care staff and parents from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The evaluation project enrolled child care centers with families representing the ethnically diverse communities in which they were located. Violence prevention research involving children from diverse ethnic backgrounds presents new methodologic challenges, but also provides new opportunities for creative, novel methods. This paper describes some of the challenges encountered with curriculum development, staff recruitment, instrument selection, and data collection procedures.

Youth violence is an important public health problem. During the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the United States witnessed unprecedented levels of violence among the nation's youths. Homicide remains one of the leading causes of death for young people aged 10 to 24 years. This paper reviews the major trends in homicide victimization and perpetration among youths during the past decade, the developmental pathways of delinquent and violent behavior and the context in which these behaviors occur, and some of the challenges associated with disrupting these pathways and preventing violence. Previous research reveals that multiple pathways lead toward violence and delinquency. Predicting which pathway a youth will follow, or if one will be followed at all, depends to some extent on a host of other biological, psychosocial, and environmental factors present as young people transition from early childhood to adolescence to early adulthood. Preventing violence requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account developmental needs, tasks, and supports.

In response to the magnitude of violence in the United States, a number of violence-prevention programs have been implemented throughout the country. However, relatively few have been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness. To encourage development and evaluation of violence-prevention interventions that focus on young children and their families, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided funding to four projects in 1996. This paper briefly describes the rationale for funding these projects, which is based on our understanding of the development of aggressive and violent behavior and on the literature regarding promising approaches to prevent problem behavior in this age group. We provide an overview of the four specific projects funded by the CDC as well as a short discussion of some of the many challenges encountered during their implementation.

Background: Violence in the workplace accounts for 1000 fatalities and over 20,000 nonfatal events annually in the United States. The occupations with the most fatalities are taxicab drivers, employees in retail establishments, and law enforcement officers. Environmental strategies as well as behavioral and administrative measures could be employed to address violence., Methods: This paper reports a critical review of the published literature on administrative and behavioral interventions directed at addressing workplace violence. Searching 17 different databases, we identified 137 papers that described workplace violence intervention strategies. Papers were further categorized according to whether they provided empirical data about an intervention or merely suggested intervention ideas. Suggested interventions were categorized according to applicability to types of workplace violence and organized according to the Haddon Matrix., Results: Forty-one reports suggested intervention strategies but provided no empirical data; nine reported results of intervention evaluations. All intervention studies were based in the health care industry and addressed violent encounters between workers and patients. Overall, the research designs employed were weak and the results inconclusive. None used experimental designs., Conclusions: The lack of rigorous research to assess administrative and behavioral measures to address workplace violence represents a significant gap. Intervention research needs to draw on appropriate theoretical and conceptual frameworks, address the multiple contexts in which violence occurs, and employ strong evaluation research designs, including attention to process, impact, and outcome measures.

Violence among youths is an important public health problem. Between 1985 and 1991, homicide rates among youths 15-19 years of age increased 154% and remain, today, at historically high levels. This paper reviews the major trends in homicide victimization and perpetration among youths over the last decade, the key risk factors associated with violence, and summarizes the many primary prevention efforts under way to reduce violence. Previous research points to a number of factors that increase the probability of violence during adolescence and young adulthood. Some of these factors include the early onset of aggressive behavior in childhood, social problem-solving skill deficits, exposure to violence, poor parenting practices and family functioning, negative peer influences, access to firearms, and neighborhoods characterized by high rates of poverty, transiency, family disruption, and social isolation. Efforts to address some of the primary risk factors for violence are under way across the United States, but evaluations to confirm program effectiveness are needed.

Introduction: Firearm violence injures or kills 100,000 Americans each year. This paper applies the Host-Agent-Vector-Environment model to this issue. Research on firearm violence tends to focus on two elements-the host (i.e., victims of firearm violence) and the environment (i.e., gun policies)-but little attention has been paid to the agent (the gun and ammunition) or the vector (firearm manufacturers, dealers, and the industry lobby).Methods: Using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data, trends in firearm manufacturing were investigated from 1990 to 2015. Outcome measures included: (1) trends in domestic gun manufacturing by weapon type; (2) trends in production by firearm caliber; and (3) 2015 market share by type of firearm and company. Data were collected and analyzed in 2016.Results: Overall domestic firearms production decreased slightly from 1996 through 2004, and then steadily increased from 1.7% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2013, when >10 million firearms were produced for the domestic market. The increase in total firearm production was driven by the increased production of pistols and rifles. Within the pistol category, increased production was attributable to an increase in higher caliber weapons. Similar trends were observed in gun purchases and recovered and traced crime guns.Conclusions: Trends in firearm manufacturing reveal a shift toward more-lethal weapons, and this trend is also observed in gun purchases and crime gun traces. This may reflect a societal shift in cultural practices and norms related to guns and could inform strategies to reduce firearm violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although youth violence is a serious concern in the United States, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth have generally been neglected as a demographic group for scholarly inquiry or community mobilization efforts. This lack of attention in the violence prevention field is indicative of two perceptual impediments with which AAPI communities have struggled for decades: (1) That AAPIs represent a relatively small portion of the United States population, and (2) That AAPIs are stereotyped as “model minorities” who do not encounter serious social obstacles and who lack ethnic heterogeneity. This paper challenges these concerns, and describes two community mobilization efforts to prevent youth violence in AAPI communities. Both of these efforts were carried out from 2000 to 2003 by the University of Hawaii, Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center. Findings from these mobilization efforts highlight the need for long-term university–community commitments, in which university entities take a leadership role in disaggregating AAPI juvenile justice data. Another critical need is to work with previously marginalized ethnic groups within the AAPI population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City represented a new strain on already fractured communities with low collective efficacy. Like the majority of citizens in the greater metropolitan area, researchers at the Community Research Group of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health wanted to “do” something to help in the aftermath of the attacks. The group proposed to promote collective recovery, that is, rebuilding social connections in the city as the foundation for individual and group recovery. After several months of organizing, New York City RECOVERS (NYCR)—a network of organizations formed to promote trauma recovery post 9/11—in conjunction with the New York University’s International Trauma Studies Program, persuaded the New York City Department of Health and Mental Health and the FEMA-funded Project Liberty to sponsor a conference on collective recovery, with a focus on the first anniversary of the tragedy. Utilizing participant observation, the research team documented the outreach and dissemination efforts of NYCR, the partners’ organizational engagement in collective recovery, and the recovery activities they pursued. This paper describes the work of the conference and the specific efforts for youth violence prevention that followed. In this circumstance, engaging community partners helped shift the research agenda from one driven by funders and researchers to one co-driven by the organizations and populations they aimed to influence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes a neighborhood-level intervention to promote the well-being of children up to five years old and their families in the City of Riverside, California. As a case study, the narrative presented here conveys how, in 2002, this city addressed the problem of youth violence through a theoretically informed approach to neighborhood mobilization. The approach is grounded in the assumption that such violence can ultimately be prevented by rebuilding social capital depleted by rapid and extensive neighborhood changes during the past decade. The theoretical premises underlying the mobilization approach are briefly summarized. Additionally, the challenge of blending theory and practice, as well as the fiscal, political, and social issues encountered in the initial implementation of this initiative, are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]