Setting the scene

"Young People, Violence and Strategic Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)" brings together data and case studies from a range of SSA countries. While the findings are diverse, a set of themes predominate: they reveal that violence, embedded in everyday lived realities, is a complex and urgent issue that should be comprehensively probed. While moments of political and xenophobic violence are reflected upon, critical attention is firmly on young women and their grappling with sexual and gender-based violence. The COVID lens has magnified micro-struggles and long-standing structural problems showing how inequities and disadvantages have created an infrastructure through which violence has been exacerbated. There is also a focus on masculinities constructed by oppressive histories, social and economic crises, and state disregard, but with the message that marginality should not be reified, nor the gendered practices of young men oversimplified. In all the chapters, contextual specificities and insightful case studies offer thoughts and arguments about the ways in which violence manifests, what interventionist strategies are compelling, and how young people's proactive involvement in interventions could begin to address the problem of violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Consensus organizing: Facilitating community change

Community organizing is the process of helping communities work together to identify and solve problems. Most organizing approaches focus on empowering and strengthening communities to solve their own problems. Locality development is a neighborhood based organizing approach to engage a broad range of key stakeholders in developing goals and taking civic action. Consensus organizing focuses on five key strategic principles and nine basic steps. There are several examples of how consensus organizing has been used to engage residents and build their capacity to create community change in community development, family services, violence prevention, and equitable development. Consensus organizing is a vehicle through which social workers can address contemporary issues that continue to impact the individuals, families, groups, and communities with which we work, including racial injustices, police brutality, as well as health, housing, food, and other equity issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consensus organizers engage in advocacy and peaceful protests around inequity and racial injustices. However, they also work to create mutual interests and solutions around these long-term problems, authentically engaging residents and those affected by problems to lead the creation of solutions to some of society's most pressing issues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

School-related violence during the COVID-19 pandemic

During a global pandemic, there are unique and unprecedented challenges to all segments of society. For more than 3 years, schools and families alike have been faced with compromising life situations that have resulted in forms of anxiety and violence. Early studies are provided as are directions for further research in this area. Addressed are issues related to violence in the home, issues related to quarantined situations, some of the stresses of the global COVID-19 pandemic on children, parents, teachers, and community members, and the lessons learned during this very difficult time frame. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Workplace Violence in the Hospital: Strategies for Meaningful Change.

BACKGROUND: Workplace violence is not a unique problem to organizations. Evidence-based toolkits and strategies are available to help provide a guiding framework for the reduction of workplace violence events. As times and stressors (both personal and environmental) change, hospitals must keep constant attention on how to address and implement initiatives to keep staff safe. This manuscript addresses steps taken at 1 hospital to meet this challenge. PROCESS: Although a workplace violence committee had been in place for some time, it was identified that not all of the key players were included. Membership was evaluated, and executive-level support was provided. A review of literature was conducted and identified top priorities upon which to focus efforts. Subcommittees were formed to be responsible for these categories of work and to report back to the committee. EVALUATION: Data points and a dashboard were created to monitor trends and effectiveness, especially regarding combating the culture of underreporting. Processes and resources were formalized and made easily accessible to staff. Case studies and direct feedback from staff have been impactful and helped identify additional barriers. Evaluation will continue to occur using process-improvement methodology along with technological assistance. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace violence is not part of the job. Ongoing work is needed to continue to move the needle and make hospitals a safer place to work. Engagement from all levels of the organization is necessary to have a successful program.

The story of a model restorative school: Creative response to conflict at MS 217 in Queens, NY

Purpose: Restorative practice programs in the USA and Western elementary and secondary schools have been the focus of intensive, large scale field research that reports positive impacts on school climate, pro-social student behavior and aggressive behavior. This paper aims to contribute to a gap in the research by reporting a case study of transformation of an urban middle school in a multi-year implementation of restorative practices. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports how Creative Response to Conflict (CRC) supported the transformation of Middle School 217, in Queens, NY, from a school with one of the highest suspension rates in New York City to a model restorative school. CRC's model, which incorporates the themes of cooperation, communication, affirmation, conflict resolution, mediation, problem-solving, bias awareness, bullying prevention and intervention, social-emotional learning and restorative practices, helped shift the perspective and practice of the entire school community from punitive to restorative. Findings: Implementation of a full school advisory program using restorative circles for all meetings and classes and development of a 100% respect program committing all school community members to dignified and respectful treatment aided the transformation. Key to MS 217's success was the collaboration of multiple non-profit organizations for provision of peer mediation training, after-school follow-up work, staff coaching and preventative cyberbullying training through the Social Media-tors! Program. Research limitations/implications: Challenges to the restorative practices implementation are reviewed with attention to the implementation online during COVID-19. Originality/value: Next steps in the program post-COVID are articulated as a best practice model for other schools interested in adopting MS 217's commitment, creativity and community-building to become a model restorative school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Online violence education in the era of COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic required a rapid shift to online learning for many educators and students. To provide recommendations for delivering violence prevention education in an online setting, this integrative review synthesizes best practices for delivering (1) online learning and (2) violence prevention education. These two sets of best practices were synthesized to provide recommendations for online violence education and were considered through a trauma-informed lens, as informed by recommendations specific to online instruction during COVID-19. These integrative review findings and recommendations may be helpful to instructors who are adapting violence education curricula to online settings, both during the pandemic and in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Preventing maltreatment at home: A meta-analysis examining outcomes from online programs

Purpose: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) related to stay-at-home orders, as well as the financial and emotional stress many individuals are experiencing. With limitations on group gatherings, typical in-person prevention and intervention resources, such as anger management groups or batterer intervention programs, may be inaccessible to people in need of resources. Method: In order to understand effective options for reducing risk when face-to-face interventions are not feasible, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of online programs aimed at improving participants' well-being and reducing IPV risk. Six studies were identified in databases using key search terms. Results: Change score comparisons revealed that online programs reduced participants' anger, depression, emotional IPV perpetration, and physical IPV perpetration significantly more than control groups. Discussion: Findings suggest that online resources can help motivated individuals struggling with anger and/or at risk for IPV perpetration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

"Boiling Water but There's No Pop-Off Valve": Health Care Provider Perceptions of the Effects of COVID-19 on Intimate Partner Violence.

This study sought to understand the effects of COVID-19, including movement-related restrictions such as shelter-in-place, quarantine, and isolation orders, on intimate partner violence (IPV) from the perspective of health care providers (HCPs) working at a public hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. From November 2020 to May 2021, we conducted 12 interviews. Three themes emerged: (1) HCPs perceived that COVID-19 movement-related restrictions likely exacerbated IPV; (2) HCPs encountered many practice-oriented and community barriers in IPV care provision during COVID-19; and (3) HCPs suggested process and partnership improvements for IPV response. These findings can inform future pandemic preparedness including improved communication, improved IPV screening and follow-up, and strengthened hospital-community partnerships.

Effects of the Pelotas (Brazil) Peace Pact on violence and crime: a synthetic control analysis.

Background: City-led interventions are increasingly advocated to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goal to reduce violence for all. We used a new quantitative evaluation method to examine whether a flagship programme, called the "Pelotas Pact for Peace" (the Pacto), has been effective in reducing violence and crime in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. Methods: We used synthetic control methodology to assess the effects of the Pacto from August 2017 to December 2021, and separately before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outcomes included monthly rates of homicide and property crime, and yearly rates of assault against women and school drop-out. We constructed synthetic controls (counterfactuals) based on weighted averages from a donor pool of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul. Weights were identified using pre-intervention outcome trends and confounders (sociodemographics, economics, education, health and development, and drug trafficking). Findings: The Pacto led to an overall 9% reduction in homicide and 7% reduction in robbery in Pelotas. These effects were not uniform across the full post-intervention period as clear effects were only seen during the pandemic period. A 38% reduction in homicide was also specifically associated with the criminal justice strategy of Focussed Deterrence. No significant effects were found for non-violent property crimes, violence against women, and school dropout, irrespective of the post-intervention period. Interpretation: City-level interventions that combine public health and criminal justice approaches could be effective in tackling violence in Brazil. Continued monitoring and evaluation efforts are increasingly needed as cities are proposed as key opportunities for reducing violence for all. Funding: This research was funded by the Wellcome Trust [grant number: 210735_Z_18_Z].

Development and Validation of a Questionnaire Assessing the Perception and Practice of Workplace Violence Prevention Among Employers at Healthcare Facilities in North-Eastern Malaysia.

Introduction Healthcare workers have been suffering from workplace violence in alarming numbers, showing the importance of its prevention initiative. This study aims to develop and validate a new questionnaire to assess the perception and practice scores of workplace violence prevention among employers at healthcare facilities. Methods Existing literature has been reviewed to establish the domains and refine the items. The first drafted domain was the perception constructed by six components and 59 items. The second drafted domain was practice, consisting of six components and 41 items. Content validation was measured by a panel of experts using the item-level content validity index (I-CVI). Then, face validation analysis was carried out among 10 healthcare employers and presented as the item-level face validity index (I-FVI). Lastly, 222 participants were recruited to determine the validity and reliability of the questionnaire by using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and internal consistency reliability. Results Following content validation, two items in the practice domain were removed because of the I-CVI below 0.78. The I-CVI values of the remaining items for both domains were above 0.78, indicating good relevancy of 59 items to assess the perception and 39 items to evaluate the practice domains. The I-FVI values for both domains were above 0.80, suggesting that the participants easily understood the questionnaire. Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant for both domains (p<0.001). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure was 0.879 for the perception domain and 0.941 for the practice domain. All items load above 0.6 in their respective factor. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficient of reliability test ranged from 0.71 to 0.92 and from 0.82 to 0.97 for the perception and practice domains, respectively. The final revised questionnaire consisted of nine components (35 items) for perception and four components (27 items) for practice. Conclusion The newly developed set of questionnaires is a valid and reliable tool to assess the perception and practice of workplace violence prevention among employers at healthcare facilities.

Emotional Education Program: "Aventurémonos en Familia” A strategy for the promotion of mental health, family functionality and the prevention of violence

"Aventurémonos en Familia Program” aims to generate a space for the recognition, regulation and emotional recovery of early childhood, children, teenagers and their families in the midst of the crisis presented by Covid-19, and who are immersed in contexts of violence. This is an emotional education program, its objective is promoting mental health and family functionality. In the program was implemented a mixed research with 159 caregivers and 139 children in Córdoba, Atlántico and Sucre, Colombia. The results show that the participants have improvements family functionality and the emotional skills of the family members. © GKA Ediciones, authors.

Online violence education in the era of COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic required a rapid shift to online learning for many educators and students. To provide recommendations for delivering violence prevention education in an online setting, this integrative review synthesizes best practices for delivering (1) online learning and (2) violence prevention education. These two sets of best practices were synthesized to provide recommendations for online violence education and were considered through a trauma-informed lens, as informed by recommendations specific to online instruction during COVID-19. These integrative review findings and recommendations may be helpful to instructors who are adapting violence education curricula to online settings, both during the pandemic and in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Gun violence is a public health crisis that needs more applied criminologists

Research SummaryGun violence was declared a "public health crisis” after shootings increased in many U.S. cities during the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The public health approach to gun violence prevention offers many advantages such as an applied research model, the mobilization of a wider range of stakeholders, and a commitment to harm reduction. Too often, however, the public health community seems unaware of criminological research on gun violence and avoids including criminal justice interventions in their comprehensive plans.Policy ImplicationsCommunities need immediate relief from the persistent trauma of repeated shootings. Criminal justice interventions represent important responses to outbreaks of gun violence that should be included among recommended public health programs intended to address proximate and upstream causes of gun violence. Gun violence prevention policy and practice would be strengthened by more deliberate attempts to foster complementary public health and criminology research and development collaborations. More applied criminologists need to become engaged in gun violence research to meet this call.

Assessing the effect of COVID-19 stay-at -home orders on firearm injury in Maryland.

This study sought to characterize frequency and demographic characteristics of firearm injury and penetrating trauma in Maryland over the first year of the pandemic, by comparing these characteristics to those of the three years prior to stay-at-home order issuance. Patients were identified in the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission database using ICD-10 codes for firearm injury by all intents and assaults by penetrating trauma. Cases from July 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020 ("pre-stay-at-home") were compared to those from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 ("post-stay-at-home") using descriptive statistics. There was no significant change overall in frequency or demographics of firearm injury or penetrating trauma in the year after stay-at-home orders were issued. Youth between ages 15 and 24, overwhelmingly male, comprise a disproportionately high percentage of firearm injuries and assaults, and most penetrating trauma occurs in urban environments where Black non-Hispanic youth and children of low socioeconomic status are at high risk. Our study also found unintentional firearm injury among adults was significantly increased during the pandemic. While increased unintentional firearm injury among adults was the major significant change found in our study, the persistence of firearm injury, particularly in youth, racial and ethnic minority groups, and those in urban environments, should be deeply concerning. Stay-at-home policies did not keep youth safer from firearm injury. With continued high rates of firearm injury and the national debate over how to prevent these incidents, increased education and comprehensive strategies for prevention are needed.

Feasibility and acceptability study of the online ACT-Raising Safe Kids program

This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the online version of the ACT-Raising Safe Kids Parenting Program, and the effect of improving parenting practices in the coronavirus pandemic context. The sample comprised 20 mothers of two-to-six-year-old children. The mothers answered the ACT, PAFAS, and PSOC scales in the pre- and post-intervention assessments. In addition, the acceptability questionnaire and the ACE scale were administered at post-intervention. A within-group comparison analysis was performed. The results showed that the mothers reported a significant increase in emotional/behavioral regulation and parental sense of competence, and a decrease in coercive practices in the post-intervention period compared to the pre-intervention period. The mothers reported great acceptance of the ACT online version. In conclusion, the ACT online version was feasible, acceptable, and effective in improving parenting practices.

Mental health service delivery for IPV victims during the COVID-19 pandemic: Technology as a path forward

This paper focuses on outlining factors to consider for mental health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we aim to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the rapid shift in the use of technology-based programs within family violence crisis centers. First, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the use of technology with IPV populations. Specifically, we are interested in how teleservices (particularly telehealth) assist and hinder service delivery and survivor outcomes. Second, two reputable and longstanding violence-prevention organizations in the Greater Houston Area (Houston Area Women's Center [HAWC] and Montgomery County Women's Center [MCWC]) will be used to illustrate some of the benefits and advantages resulting from the abrupt shift to telehealthbased service delivery for IPV victims and survivors. This paper provides some preliminary insight to the advantages and disadvantages of the transition to telehealth services during a pandemic in violence prevention organization settings. Nonetheless, there is a great need for additional efficacy and effectiveness studies as this transition is new and the long-term effects are not wellknown. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Intersectoral violence prevention: the potential of public health-criminal justice partnerships.

Building successful intersectoral partnerships to address health is critical to reaching health promotion goals. With the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in violence during the pandemic and the heightened demand for racial justice resulting from police killings of people of color, particularly young, black males, intersectoral public health-criminal justice partnerships must be more thoroughly examined. Violence prevention is both a public health and criminal justice issue, with public health systems emphasizing primary prevention and criminal justice systems addressing violence prevention at secondary and tertiary levels. Public health-criminal justice collaborations can provide an opportunity to seize upon unrealized violence reduction goals across the spectrum of prevention. At the same time, issues remain that are at odds across field boundaries as exemplified through community violence prevention. While there have been successful examples of such collaborations, past public health-criminal justice partnerships also demonstrate the challenges of working together. These challenges have yet to be systematically described and rooted in the larger literature on partnerships. In this paper, collaborative challenges are enumerated and evidence-informed strategies to overcome those barriers to achieve violence reduction goals are identified as a way to ground further intersectoral partnership work between public health and criminal justice.

The story of a model restorative school: creative response to conflict at MS 217 in Queens, NY

Purpose Restorative practice programs in the USA and Western elementary and secondary schools have been the focus of intensive, large scale field research that reports positive impacts on school climate, pro-social student behavior and aggressive behavior. This paper aims to contribute to a gap in the research by reporting a case study of transformation of an urban middle school in a multi-year implementation of restorative practices. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports how Creative Response to Conflict (CRC) supported the transformation of Middle School 217, in Queens, NY, from a school with one of the highest suspension rates in New York City to a model restorative school. CRC's model, which incorporates the themes of cooperation, communication, affirmation, conflict resolution, mediation, problem-solving, bias awareness, bullying prevention and intervention, social-emotional learning and restorative practices, helped shift the perspective and practice of the entire school community from punitive to restorative. Findings Implementation of a full school advisory program using restorative circles for all meetings and classes and development of a 100% respect program committing all school community members to dignified and respectful treatment aided the transformation. Key to MS 217's success was the collaboration of multiple non-profit organizations for provision of peer mediation training, after-school follow-up work, staff coaching and preventative cyberbullying training through the Social Media-tors! Program. Research limitations/implications Challenges to the restorative practices implementation are reviewed with attention to the implementation online during COVID-19. Originality/value Next steps in the program post-COVID are articulated as a best practice model for other schools interested in adopting MS 217's commitment, creativity and community-building to become a model restorative school.

Effects of prevention interventions on violence in the workplace: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Violence in the workplace represents a pressing social problem, drawing attention to the need for both public and private prevention interventions. Workplace violence and workplace violence prevention serve as a crucial topic globally, given the context of violence and victimization in the workplace across a range of industries, and in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of this article is to carry out a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of the full range of approaches to prevent workplace violence. Following PRISMA guidelines, this review uses rigorous criteria for the inclusion of studies, comprehensive search strategies to identify eligible studies, and a detailed protocol for coding study characteristics. Meta-analytic techniques are used to assess the impact of prevention interventions (at the employee- and organizational-levels) on workplace violence. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. The weighted mean effect sizes for employee and organizational-level studies were positive and moderate, yet non-significant: d = 0.50 (95% CI = −0.05, 1.06) and d = 0.22 (95% CI = −0.62, 1.07), respectively. Variability of intervention modalities, the promising nature of some prevention interventions, and the need for consideration of a broader range of measures of workplace violence offer some directions for future research to help inform policy and practice.

Student, Staff, and Faculty Perspectives on Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence on 3 Public University Campuses: Protocol for the UC Speaks Up Study and Preliminary Results.

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner and sexual violence are pervasive public health issues on college and university campuses in the United States. Research is recommended for creating and maintaining effective, relevant, and acceptable prevention programs and response services for student survivors. OBJECTIVE: The University of California (UC) Speaks Up study aims to examine factors contributing to intimate partner and sexual violence on 3 UC campuses and use the findings to develop and test interventions and policies to prevent violence, promote health, and lay the groundwork for subsequent large-scale quantitative research. METHODS: A mixed methods study was conducted at UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara. Phase I (2017-2020) involved a resource audit; cultural consensus modeling of students' perceptions of sexual consent; in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions with students to understand perceptions of campus environment related to experiences as well as prevention of and responses to violence; and IDIs with faculty, staff, and community stakeholders to investigate institutional and community arrangements influencing students' lives and experiences. Phase II (2020-ongoing) involves IDIs with student survivors to assess the use and perceptions of campus and community services. Qualitative content analysis is used to generate substantive codes and subthemes that emerge, using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS: In January 2019, we conducted 149 free-listing interviews and 214 web-based surveys with undergraduate and graduate and professional students for the cultural consensus modeling. Between February 2019 and June 2019, 179 IDIs were conducted with 86 (48%) undergraduate students, 21 (11.7%) graduate and professional students, 34 (19%) staff members, 27 (15.1%) faculty members, and 11 (6.1%) community stakeholders, and 35 focus group discussions (27/35, 77% with undergraduate students and 8/35, 23% with graduate and professional students) were conducted with 201 participants. Since September 2020, 50% (15/30) of the planned student survivor interviews have been conducted. This segment of data collection was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment is ongoing. CONCLUSIONS: Data analysis and phase II data collection are ongoing. The findings will be used to develop and test interventions for preventing violence, promoting health and well-being, and ensuring that survivor services are relevant and acceptable to and meet the needs of all individuals in the campus community, including those who are typically understudied. The findings will also be used to prepare for rigorous, UC-system-wide public health prevention research. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/31189.