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5 What Is Working Around the World in Violence Prevention?
Pages 53-65

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From page 53...
... Dahlberg noted that despite limited funding, the current state of science in violence prevention reveals progress, promise, and a number of remaining challenges. Promising and effective activities include interventions in early childhood; efforts to improve social, emotional, and behavioral competencies; efforts to improve family functioning and parenting practices so as to change social norms; and some effective approaches in terms of reducing concentrated disadvantage and access to lethal means.
From page 54...
... It involves identifying the nature of the problem through good epidemiologic work; specifying and clarifying risk factors and, more importantly, trying to figure out how to translate those risk factors into prevention programs; and then the a ­ rduous task of testing and refining those programs and determining how best to facilitate their diffusion. This public health approach, she stated, can really make a difference in helping governments increase their knowledge of and confidence in workable interventions while providing them with alternative options to policing and public security to address violence.
From page 55...
... Some of these individual, family, and community risk factors include early and persistent antisocial behavior, friends who engage in problem behaviors, alcohol and substance use, and constitutional factors which are individual characteristics carried forward over time and can be induced by the environment (ingestion of lead paint often leads to increased violent behavior) or be genetically determined; family conflict or management problems (failure to monitor children or set clear behavioral expectations; caregivers' engaging in child maltreatment)
From page 56...
... He stated that this reinforces the need for multidisciplinary efforts to address the same risk factors if the goal is to prevent youth violence. EVIDENCE FOR EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS Hawkins reviewed data from a number of controlled studies that have identified both effective and ineffective youth development policies and approaches.
From page 57...
... One of Hawkins' longitudinal studies in public schools of the Pacific Northwest has shown that creating opportunities for active involvement of children and reinforcing this involvement (from feeding classroom pets to working on team projects in schools or beautification projects in neighborhoods) reinforces social bonding, which subsequently reinforces positive norms and standards of behavior by which the child is likely to live.
From page 58...
... INTERVENTION WITH MICROFINANCE FOR AIDS AND GENDER EQUITY (IMAGE) STUDY Charlotte Watts discussed the Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity study -- a community, randomized controlled trial in eight villages in South Africa -- designed in two phases and intended to address two social risk factors for women's vulnerability to violence and HIV: poverty and gender inequity.
From page 59...
... They did not see an effect on food security and school enrollments, but she explained that this may have been due to the broader contextual changes that were occurring in South Africa at the time and may have affected both their intervention and the control communities. For broader measures of empowerment, they found positive trends in all of the indicators including self-confidence, challenging gender roles, communication with household members and partners, progressive attitudes toward violence, and autonomy in household decision making.
From page 60...
... Traditionally, Watts stated, it is assumed that interventions targeting cultural norms can bring about change over generations. She noted that other participatory interventions in South Africa and Brazil targeting issues around gender are showing evidence of impact by reducing male perpetration of intimate partner violence and other behaviors that are associated with norms that support gender inequities.
From page 61...
... Her final observation was that not only rigorous evaluation, but also methodological work is needed to help����������������������������������� conceptualize what these interventions are trying to achieve, to identify the process of change that will be promoted, and to define and measure key impacts and outcomes that are being assessed as part of the evaluation initiative. THE IMPORTANCE OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA FOR GUIDING PREVENTION Rodrigo Guerrero and Elizabeth Ward discussed the use of epidemiological data in violence prevention planning in Colombia and the Caribbean.
From page 62...
... According to Guerrero, this type of policy making and implementation requires reliable and opportune information, addressing multiple risk factors, political will and leadership, continuity, multisectoral efforts, and monitoring to make necessary corrections along the way. THE CARIBBEAN Elizabeth Ward focused her comments on violence prevention efforts in Jamaica.
From page 63...
... Another example is a U.S.-­supported initiative that placed community workers in a specific community to address violence prevention and saw a significant reduction in the homicide rate from 11 percent to zero. Other community-based programs that Ward mentioned focus on violence prevention, including community policing, gang interventions, environmental improvements for safety, mediation and counseling, small-arms control, and domestic violence (including United Nations Development Fund for Women-supported activities)
From page 64...
... The rigorous evaluation of the IMAGE study and wide dissemination of its findings showed the potential influence of their findings because the South African National AIDS Plan now explicitly incorporates elements about addressing women's vulnerability to violence as part of the national AIDS strategy. Watts suggested that the participatory nature of the IMAGE study in challenging issues of gender and relationship took time and could not be done superficially and that researchers needed to think critically about intervention modalities that allow them to spend time with participants and really engage them in the issues of interest.
From page 65...
... Watts identified several issues for consideration when scaling up from a small research intervention to a much larger implementation including operational and organizational issues, whether there is programmatic compromise when scaling up occurs, whether any revisions have to be made, and whether there are health, social, and economic development mechanisms or vehicles for synergistic linkages and integration other than microfinance -- such as literacy, HIV/AIDS, or malaria. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The highlights of the discussion with participants focused on examples of the participatory approach in research coupled with epidemiological data from a specific program in El Salvador.


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