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Progress and prospects in youth violence-prevention evaluation
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago 60612, USA. Tolan@uic.edu
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|September 1, 1996
Summary
Evaluating youth violence prevention programs requires rigorous methods. This research addresses past evaluation deficiencies, highlighting advances in efficacy trials and program design for better prevention strategies.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Criminology
Background:
- Previous evaluations of youth violence prevention programs often overlooked epidemiological patterns and failed to differentiate violence types or intervention risk levels.
- This has limited the effectiveness and generalizability of prevention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically assess the methodologies used in evaluating youth violence-prevention projects.
- To identify past deficiencies and highlight advancements in evaluation techniques.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and reports on youth violence-prevention projects.
- Analysis of evaluation designs, including considerations of epidemiologic patterns, violence typologies, and risk-influence levels.
Main Results:
- Evaluations are improving by incorporating epidemiologic patterns, differentiating violence types, and addressing risk levels.
- Efficacy trials, random assignment, and setting-specific interventions are increasingly recognized as crucial.
Conclusions:
- While progress has been made, limitations such as brief follow-up periods and unclear intervention targets remain.
- Future efforts should focus on longer follow-up, understanding contextual factors, and evaluating situational modifications for enhanced violence prevention.