Preventing Violence

To truly put an end to violence, we must prevent it before it ever occurs. Effective violence prevention strategies involve community-wide collaboration, advocacy, and education to foster healthy environments, behaviors, and relationships. 

The term “prevention” describes approaches, programs, or strategies designed to promote healthy environments and behaviors and to prevent unhealthy environments and behaviors. Intimate partner violence prevention, sexual violence prevention, and dating violence prevention are just that – strategies to reduce the perpetration of these types of violence.

Levels of Prevention

1. Primary prevention = approaches, programs, or strategies designed to prevent violence before violence occurs;
2. Secondary prevention = approaches, programs, or strategies designed to deal with the short-term consequences of violence and to prevent further violence immediately following a violent incident;
3. Tertiary prevention = approaches, programs, or strategies designed to deal with the long-term consequences of violence and to prevent future violence long after violence has occurred.

Target Audiences

1. Universal audience = everyone, regardless of risk (learn more about the risk and protective factors of violence)
2. Selected audience = people who have a heightened risk of victimization or perpetration
3. Indicated audience = people who have been victimized or have perpetrated violence

By definition, primary prevention efforts are typically geared towards a universal or selected audience. Secondary and tertiary prevention efforts are typically geared towards an indicated audience. However, some primary prevention efforts target “at-risk” groups or a more indicated audience.

One benefit to primary prevention with universal audiences is the ability to facilitate change in large segments of society.

 

Prevention Models

Numerous theoretical models have emerged to describe the causes of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence, such as:

• feminist models,
• power-based models,
• cultural models,
• psychological models, and
• biological models.

Each model contributes valuable insight and knowledge into the causes of these types of violence – the risk and protective factors surrounding violence. For that reason, prevention practitioners build and shape their programs around these very theories. In fact, ensuring that your prevention program is theory-driven is one of the nine Principles of Effective Prevention Programs.

Social-Ecological Model

The social ecological model is widely used in the violence prevention field. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adapted this model from the World Report on Violence and Health. “Social” denotes social or society and “ecology” refers to the relationship between human groups and their social and physical environments.

The social ecological model is a four-level ecological model examining the individual, relationships, community, and society factors that protect or put people at risk for experiencing or using violence. According to the model, there is interdependence or interrelationships between ourselves, others, community, and society. Broader physical, social, political, economic, ethical, and cultural contexts and histories influence us. Within each broad context there are factors that protect people (protective factors) or put people at risk (risk factors) for experiencing or using violence. To be effective, the Principles of Effective Prevention Programs suggest that prevention efforts should be comprehensive and target each level of the social ecological model.

You can learn more about the social ecological model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

The Spectrum of Prevention

The spectrum of prevention, developed by Larry Cohen, is a tool to bring comprehensive action and norms change. Similar to the social ecological model, the spectrum focuses not just on individuals but it also explores the context or environments in which intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence occurs. The spectrum outlines six levels at which prevention efforts should occur: (1) strengthening individual knowledge and skills, (2) promoting community education, (3) educating providers, (4) fostering coalitions and networks, (5) changing organizational practices, and (6) influencing policies and legislation. When combined, efforts at these six levels can result in an effective comprehensive prevention strategy.

You can read Sexual Violence and the Spectrum of Prevention: Towards a Community Solution or review the Sexual Violence and the Spectrum of Prevention Fact Sheet to learn more about the spectrum of prevention and its six levels of intervention.

 

Current Approaches

Historically, efforts to prevent intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence targeted potential victims and taught this audience how to identify and protect themselves from abusers. Examples include early education programs teaching children how to say “no” and campus education classes teaching women how to reduce their risk of victimization. Few efforts targeted men and those that did tended to approach the audience as potential abusers. Experts and practitioners in the field have since criticized these earlier programs for placing the onus of preventing violence on victims, failing to address abusers responsibility for the violence, and alienating males by addressing them only as potential abusers of violence.

We have since learned that males are important allies in the field of violence prevention, and that both males and females, both children and parents, and both students and teachers – everyone – would benefit from learning about their role as a bystander to intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence. This creates a broader community context for prevention that not only includes everyone, but it also takes into account the various risk and protective factors that occur at each level with the social ecological model.

Two promising approaches to intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence prevention are the social norms approach and bystander engagement approach.

Social Norms Approach

The social norm theory suggests that people misperceive others’ attitudes and behaviors towards intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence as being more supportive than they actually are. For example, college males may believe it is fairly common on campus for men to try to get their dates intoxicated and pressure them into having sex. Research has shown one of the consequences of these misperceptions is that people change their behavior to better reflect what they believe to be the norm.[i] In other words, these misperceptions encourage unhealthy or problem attitudes and behavior and inhibit healthier attitudes and behaviors.

The social norms approach can be applied at all three levels of prevention. Examples include: universal social norms marketing campaigns to correct misperceptions and encourage healthier attitudes and behaviors; more selective interventions, such as interactive workshops, classes, or discussions among members of a particular group; and indicated interventions for individuals who have already engaged in problematic or unhealthy behavior, typically using motivational interviewing and stages of change theory to provide feedback to individuals.

Bystander Approach

The bystander engagement approach creates a broader community context for violence prevention that includes not just victims or perpetrators of violence but their friends, family, peers, teachers, coworkers, and other community members. 

Another consequence of people’s misperceptions of others’ attitudes and behaviors towards intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence is that these misperceptions can inhibit their willingness to intervene in violent situations. Our willingness to step up and speak out against intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence is critical to eliminating these types of violence. Silence only reinforces and encourages perpetrators violent behavior and leaves victims feeling isolated or at fault.

Researchers have studied the bystander engagement theory for years. Their work has found that whether or not someone decides to actively intervene in a violent situation is affected by a number of situational factors (e.g., the presence of other witnesses or the level or urgency or danger), individual characteristics (e.g., the demographics and relationship of those involved or a person’s level of skill to safely intervene in violent situations), the person’s feelings and attitudes about violence, and their perceived cost of intervening.[ii] The bystander engagement approach can address some of these factors in a way that participants are more likely to intervene by providing information on how widespread intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence are, education on the impact these types of violence have on victims, tips on how to respond to and support someone who discloses abuse, and skills to step up and speak out against behavior that contributes to violence.

i. Berkowitz, A. D. (2004). The social norms approach: Theory, research, and annotated bibliography. Retrieved from www.alanberkowitz.com/articles/social_norms.pdf.

ii. Foubert, J. D., Tabachnick, J., & Schewe, P. A. (2010). Encouraging Bystander Intervention for Sexual Violence Prevention. In K. L. Kaufman (Ed.), The prevention of sexual violence: A practitioner’s sourcebook, (pp. 121-134). Holyoke, MA: NEARI Press.

 

Prevention in Nebraska

Sexual Violence Prevention Plan of Nebraska

The Sexual Violence Prevention Plan of Nebraska (2010) recommends prevention efforts focus on the universal population of young people ages 11-17, and on the selected population of youth living in rural areas. The plan recommends several highly promising avenues for collaboration among agencies and presents seven recommended goals for sexual violence prevention.

Network Program Standards for Prevention

The Nebraska Coalition holds network programs to a set of standards which include expectations for prevention efforts and activities. For more information, please see the Nebraska Program Standards.

Lindsay Ann Burke Act

The Lindsay Ann Burke Act, passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2009, is named after a 23-year-old woman from Rhode Island who was murdered by her boyfriend. Learn more about Lindsay Ann Burke at LABMF.org. The Lindsay Ann Burke Act requires public school districts to create policies and procedures to address teen dating violence. Schools must publish these policies in their school handbooks and share the information with parents. Under this law, all school staff who has contact with students will receive training on teen dating violence. Students will receive age-appropriate information on dating violence and healthy relationships in the classroom. More information about the Lindsay Ann Burke Act and how it is implemented in Nebraska is available via the Resources and Information to Assist with the Prevention of Dating Violence in Nebraska School Districts.