A developmental psychopathology approach to understanding and preventing youth violence

There are many views in both the lay and professional literatures as to the causes of violent behavior. These views influence the types of interventions that are designed and tested for preventing violence or for treating violent individuals. In this paper, the author provides a developmental psychopathology framework in which violent behavior is viewed as a developmental outcome that can result from many different pathways, each involving a somewhat different interaction of causal processes. This way of viewing violent behavior has already helped to guide some of the more effective prevention and treatment strategies, with the key to their success being a comprehensive and individualized approach to intervention. This approach for understanding violent behavior also points the way to some important goals for a next generation of prevention and treatment programs.