Cost-effective violence prevention through targeted family interventions

Efforts in violence prevention can focus on individual youth, their families, their schools, or the communities in which they live. Among the small number of program models that have been proven effective in repeated replications, those that focus on improving family management and child care have been found to be the most cost-effective. The four model programs include Nurse Home Visitation, Functional Family Therapy, Multi-systemic Therapy, and Multidimensional Foster Care. All of these programs involve detailed protocols, extensive staff training and supervision, and quality-assurance procedures. The factors limiting their wider adoption include staff resistance to their structured approach, cost-sharing issues between local and state levels of government, and the political power of existing programs.