Download Discuss the Relative Effectiveness of Two Strategies for Reducing

Discuss the Relative Effectiveness of
Two Strategies for Reducing Violence
We will focus on Intimate Partner Violence
as the example of violence
Questions for Discussion
1.
2.
3.
List all possible sociocultural factors for
violence.
Consider two ways to reduce violence
Discuss and evaluate these strategies
Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse that
occurs between two people in a close
relationship.
The term “intimate partner” includes current and
former spouses and dating partners. IPV exists
along a continuum from a single episode of
violence to ongoing battering.
Intimate Partner Violence
IPV includes four types of behavior:
• Physical abuse is when a person hurts or tries to
hurt a partner by hitting, kicking, burning, or other
physical force.
• Sexual abuse is forcing a partner to take part in a
sex act when the partner does not consent.
• Threats of physical or sexual abuse include the
use of words, gestures, weapons, or other means to
communicate the intent to cause harm.
• Emotional abuse is threatening a partner or his or
her possessions or loved ones, or harming a partner’s
sense of self-worth.
Understanding Domestic
Violence
• Domestic violence has been part of the
fabric of many societies and cultures
worldwide—it is so commonplace, in fact,
that it has often gone unnoticed and failed
to receive the level of concern it deserves in
light of the devastating effects it can have
on children and families.
IPV Prevention
• Prevention requires understanding the
circumstances and factors that influence
violence. CDC uses a four-level, social
ecological model to better understand
violence and potential strategies for
prevention.
• This model considers the complex interplay
between individual, relationship,
community, and societal factors, and allows
us to address risk and protective factors from
multiple domains.
IPV Prevention
Theories of violent
prevention
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Individual Level
Relationship Level
Community Level
Societal Level
Individual level
prevention strategies
• Individual-level influences are personal
history factors that increase the likelihood of
becoming an IPV victim or perpetrator.
• Examples include attitudes and beliefs that
support IPV, isolation, and a family history of
violence.
Individual level
prevention strategies
• Prevention strategies at this level are often
designed to promote attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors that support intimate partnerships
based on mutual respect and trust. Specific
approaches may include education and life
skills training.
Life skills training
• LifeSkills Training (LST) is an evidence-based
substance abuse and violence prevention
program designed to be implemented in
counseling and therapy sessions.
• LST incorporates age-appropriate and
culturally relevant information, facilitated
discussion, and structured activities in 30
class sessions across 3 years.
• LST was developed by Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin,
Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry.
Life skills training
Life skills that are emphasized in this program
include:
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Belief in nonviolent conflict resolution.
Effective communication skills.
Ability to negotiate and adjust to stress.
Belief in partner’s right to autonomy.
Shared decision-making.
Effectiveness of Life skills
training
• Short-term effects found in the research
studies indicate significant reductions in
schemas for violent behavior (Botvin et al.,
1980a; 1980b; 1990; 1997; 2001).
• In several of these studies, exposure to the
LST curriculum also led to positive shifts in
self-efficacy, and anti-violent attitudes and
knowledge. Furthermore, the program has
positive short-term effects on delinquency
and violence (Botvin et al., 2006).
Effectiveness of Life skills
training
• Long-term effects found in the research
studies indicate less effectiveness over time
and lapses into problematic behavior.
• Discussion point: Why would this strategy be
ineffective over a long period of time?
Societal Level Strategies
• The societal level looks at the broad societal
factors that help create a climate in which
violence is encouraged or inhibited.
• These factors include social and cultural
norms. Other large societal factors include
the health, economic, educational and
social policies that help to maintain
economic or social inequalities between
groups in society.
Societal Level Strategies
Examples
• A national media campaign including TV,
radio, newspaper, and Internet methods of
communication to create awareness and
change the way people think about violence.
• Statewide legislation that provides tax
incentives to businesses that partner with
school districts to provide learning-based
technology and other academic resources in
disadvantaged communities.
Societal Level Strategies
Comprehensive interventions deal with the
community as a whole or with multiple
subgroups of the population, have several
components, and are designed to effect
social change by creating an enabling
environment for changing individual attitudes
and behavior.
Societal Level Strategies
Objectives may include improvement of
societal norms for communication and
relationship skills, promotion of equitable
gender norms and respect for rights
(especially women’s rights), encouraging
bystanders to speak out and act to prevent
violence, and challenging the social norms
and individual beliefs at the root of intimatepartner violence and sexual
violence.
Effectiveness of Societal
Level Strategies
Lessons learned from community-based
approaches are as follows:
• Such approaches are most effective when there is
community ownership, repeated exposure to ideas
through multiple channels over time, and multiple
components delivered in different community
settings (e.g. combining media outreach with group
education).
• Research also suggests that this is often the
most difficult level to implement effectively.
Effectiveness of Life skills
training
• Short-term effects found in the research
studies indicate little reductions in societal
schemas for violent behavior (Botvin et al.,
2001;).
• Longitudinal case studies suggest that
societal changes are not immediate and
outcomes are rarely seen short term. (Botvin
et al., 2006).
Effectiveness of Life skills
training
• Short-term effects found in the research
studies indicate little reductions in societal
schemas for violent behavior (Botvin et al.,
2001;).
• Longitudinal case studies suggest that
societal changes are not immediate and
outcomes are rarely seen short term. (Botvin
et al., 2006).
Effectiveness of Life skills
training
• Long-term effects found in the research
studies indicate significant reductions in
societal schemas for violent behavior
(Botvin, 2001).
• It is important to note that research is limited
on societal level effectiveness of violence
prevention.
Discussion points
• Changes in behavior at the individual level
cannot be sustained without an enabling
social environment; therefore attention must
be given to fostering social change and not
only change in individuals.
• Much work is needed to determine the
effectiveness of various policy and structural
approaches, which have different
characteristics to those of programs
delivered to individuals and groups.
Discussion points
• Prevention efforts at all levels of the
ecological model are required to produce
systemic and long-lasting changes that will
reduce the rates of intimate-partner
violence and sexual violence.
• Cultural differences must be considered and
applied at all levels in order to effectively
prevent IPV.