Twenty-one strategies to prevent youth violence are reviewed, including programmes relating to parenting, early childhood development, and social skills development.

Executive Summary

Violence is defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person or against a group that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation” . Research and programmes addressing youth violence typically include people aged 10–29 years, although patterns of youth violence can begin in early childhood.

Worldwide, an estimated 200 000 homicides occur each year among youth and young adults aged 10–29 years, making homicide the fourth leading cause of death in this age group. Eighty three percent of homicide victims in this age group are male, and nearly all of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. For each young person killed, many more sustain injuries requiring hospital treatment. Beyond deaths and injuries, youth violence can lead to mental health problems and increased health-risk behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol and drug use, and unsafe sex. Youth violence results in greatly increased health, welfare and criminal justice costs; reduces productivity; decreases the value of property in areas where it occurs; and generally undermines the fabric of society. Accordingly, effective youth violence prevention programmes can improve a broad range of health, education and social outcomes, leading to potentially substantial economic savings.
 

Youth violence is influenced by risk factors at different levels and at different life stages of an individual. At the individual level, risk factors can include a history of involvement in crime; delinquency and aggressive behaviour; psychological conditions such as hyperactivity and conduct disorder; and the harmful use of alcohol and illicit drugs. Close relationship level risk factors include growing up with poor parental supervision; having experienced harsh and inconsistent discipline by parents; parental involvement in crime; and associating with delinquent peers. Risk factors at community level include neighbourhood crime; gangs and a local supply of guns and illicit drugs; ease of access to alcohol; unemployment; high levels of income inequality, and concentrated poverty. Youth violence prevention programmes are designed to reduce the risk factors that give rise to youth violence or else mitigate the negative effects on individuals and communities where the risk factors remain prevalent.

Although the burden of youth violence is highest in low- and middle-income countries, almost all studies of prevention effectiveness come from high-income countries, in particular Australia, the United Kingdom and a few other western European countries, and the United States of America. The largest proportion of outcome evaluation studies concern strategies that address risk factors at the individual and close relationship levels, and there are fewer outcome evaluations for community- and society-level strategies. While it is important that prevention efforts target children at an early stage, few longitudinal studies measure the effects of interventions delivered in early childhood on subsequent youth violence outcomes. Bearing these limitations in mind, the table below provides an overview of youth violence prevention strategies reviewed in this document and what is known about their effectiveness. The strategies are grouped into four categories based on the context in which they are delivered.