Fern Gillon

In recent years, the UK has seen the emergence of a new approach to violence reduction&#8212the public health approach. This method prioritises early intervention and holistic support to prevent violence upstream. This movement, based in part on a perceived success story in Scotland, has led to the founding of more than twenty Violence Reduction Units in England and Wales, and more than £200m of funding to support evidence-based interventions. This book is based on a four-year, multi-method study of the public health approach to violence reduction in Scotland and England. Drawing on 190 interviews with leading professionals working in violence reduction, The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction provides an empirical case study of the effects of the public health approach to violence reduction in the UK. It traces the evolution of the approach through different scales of policymaking and scrutinises the claims of its potential, using the Scottish model as a case study. The volume makes the case that the public health approach to violence reduction is not a single entity but an assorted set of principles, practices, and discourses that alter as they enter different contexts. Informed by insights from the young people directly affected, The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction aims to anchor policy in everyday life, thereby creating a roadmap for future policy that is deeply rooted in community experience. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Preventing Violence argues that we can move towards safer and better societies by advancing holistic public health approaches to violence prevention. It explores the serious limitations of contemporary public health approaches and proposes an alternative path forward. Based on data from a three-year, ESRC-funded project 'Public Health, Youth and Violence Reduction', it also examines in-depth the work of 20 Violence Reduction Units in England and Wales. The book makes clear recommendations for policy makers, practitioners and researchers working to prevent violence and improve the lives of children and young people.