At a Glance: Messages

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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:

• 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.
  
  
• 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:

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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:

• Violence is not an intractable problem.
  
  
• In responding to violent youth, we need to correct the overuse of the criminal justice system and under?use of effective intervention programs.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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:

• 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.
  
  
• Most effective programs involve a comprehensive approach, and do not focus simply on one factor.