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1
Introduction
Violence against women and children is a serious public health con-
cern, with costs at multiple levels of society. Although violence is a threat
to everyone, women and children are particularly susceptible to victimiza-
tion because they often have fewer rights or lack appropriate means of
protection. In some societies certain types of violence are deemed socially
or legally acceptable, thereby contributing further to the risk to women
and children.
In the past decade research has documented the growing magnitude of
such violence, but gaps in the data still remain. Victims of violence of any
type fear stigmatization or societal condemnation and thus often hesitate
to report crimes. The issue is compounded by the fact that for women and
children the perpetrators are often people they know and because some
countries lack laws or regulations protecting victims. Some of the data that
have been collected suggest that rates of violence against women range from
15 to 71 percent in some countries and that rates of violence against chil-
dren top 80 percent (García-Moreno et al., 2005; Pinheiro, 2006). These
data demonstrate that violence poses a high burden on global health and
that violence against women and children is common and universal.
On January 27-28, 2011, the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Global
Violence Prevention convened its first workshop to explore the prevention
of violence against women and children. Part of the forum’s mandate is
to engage in multisectoral, multidirectional dialogue that explores cross-
cutting approaches to violence prevention. To that end, the workshop
was designed to examine these approaches from multiple perspectives and
at multiple levels of society. In particular, the workshop was focused on
1
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2 PREVENTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
exploring the successes and challenges presented by evidence-based preven-
tive interventions and examining the possibilities of scaling up or translat-
ing such work in other settings. Speakers were invited to share the progress
and outcomes of their work and to engage in dialogue exploring gaps and
opportunities in the field.
The workshop was planned by a formally appointed committee of
the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the members of which created an agenda
and identified relevant speakers. Because the topic is large and the field is
broad, presentations at this event represent only a sample of the research
currently being undertaken. Speakers were chosen to present a global, bal-
anced perspective, but by no means a comprehensive one. The agenda for
this workshop can be found in Appendix A.
ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
This summary provides a factual account of the presentations given at
the workshop. Opinions expressed within this summary are not those of
the Institute of Medicine, the forum, or its agents, but rather of the present-
ers themselves. Statements are the views of the speakers and do not reflect
conclusions or recommendations of a formally appointed committee. This
summary was authored by a designated rapporteur based on the workshop
presentations and discussions and does not represent the views of the in-
stitution, nor does it constitute a full or exhaustive overview of the field.
The workshop summary is organized thematically, covering the major
topics that arose during the two-day workshop, so as to provide a larger
context for these issues in a more compelling and comprehensive way. As
well, the thematic organization allows the summary to serve as an overview
resource of important issues in the field. The themes were chosen as the
most frequent, cross-cutting, and essential elements that arose from the
workshop, but do not represent the views of the IOM or a formal consen-
sus process.
The summary begins with a brief introduction of the issue, followed by
two parts and an appendix. The first part consists of four chapters that pro-
vide the summary of the workshop; the second part of the report consists of
submitted papers and commentary from speakers regarding the substance
of the work they presented at the workshop. These papers were solicited
from speakers to provide further information of their work. The appendix
contains additional information regarding the agenda and participants.
DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT
Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as “the inten-
tional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself,
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3
INTRODUCTION
another person, or against a group or community that either results in or
has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm,
maldevelopment, or deprivation” (WHO, 2002). When directed against
women or children, this violence can take a number of forms, including,
but not limited to, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, child abuse
and neglect, bullying, teen dating violence, trafficking, and elder abuse. The
majority of violence against women and children is perpetrated by partners,
family members, friends, or acquaintances, so that most violence against
women and children takes place in the form of intimate partner violence,
family violence, or school violence (WHO and LSHTM, 2010).
These three types of violence, which are interconnected, are commonly
referred to as being part of a “cycle of violence,” in which victims become
perpetrators. The workshop’s scope was narrowed to focus on these ele-
ments of the cycle as they relate to interrupting this transmission of vio-
lence. Intervention strategies include preventing violence before it starts as
well as preventing recurrence, preventing adverse effects (such as trauma
or the consequences of trauma), and preventing the spread of violence to
the next generation or social level. Successful strategies consider the context
of the violence, such as family, school, community, national, or regional
settings, in order to determine the best programs. Thus, the workshop
operated in a multidimensional framework that integrated ecologic, public
health, and trauma-informed paradigms to explore a comprehensive ap-
proach to violence prevention.
The next four chapters examine the four major themes that arose
from participants’ presentations and discussions: advancing research on
co-occurrence of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence (Chap-
ter 2), paradigm shifts and changing social norms (Chapter 3), the state
of prevention research in low- and middle-income countries (Chapter 4),
and prevention among multiple sectors (Chapter 5). The three chapters in
Part 2 include the submitted papers, organized as (1) overviews of evidence,
(2) global partnerships and government initiatives, and (3) examples of
preventive interventions.
And finally the appendixes consist of the agenda (A), the speakers’
biographies (B), the planning committee members’ biographies (C), and the
Forum on Global Violence Prevention members’ biographies (D).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Forum on Global Violence Prevention was established to address a
need to develop multisectoral collaboration amongst stakeholders. Violence
prevention is a cross-disciplinary field, which could benefit from increased
dialogue between researchers, policy makers, funders, and practitioners.
The forum members chose the issue of violence against women and children
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4 PREVENTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
as the forum’s first workshop theme because there is a pressing need to
coordinate and collate the information in this area. As awareness of the
insidious and pervasive nature of these types of violence grows, so too does
the imperative to mitigate and prevent.
A number of individuals contributed to the successful development of
this workshop and report. These include a number of Institute of Medicine
staff: Tessa Burke, Marton Cavani, Rosemary Chalk, Kristen Danforth, Meg
Ginivan, Wendy Keenan, Patrick Kelley, Angela Mensah, Elena Nightingale,
Kenisha Peters, Lauren Tobias, Julie Wiltshire, and Jordan Wyndelts. The
forum staff, including Deepali Patel, Rachel Pittluck, and Rachel Taylor,
also put forth considerable effort to ensure this workshop’s success. The
staff at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Barbara Jordan Conference Center
and Mind & Media provided excellent support for the live event and its
webcast.
The planning committee contributed several hours of service to develop
and execute the agenda, with the guidance of the forum membership.
Reviewers also provided thoughtful remarks in the reading of the draft
manuscript.
These efforts would not be possible without the work of the forum
membership itself, an esteemed body of individuals dedicated to the concept
that violence is preventable. Their names and biographies can be found in
Appendix D.
And finally, the overall successful functioning of the forum and its ac-
tivities rests on the foundation of its sponsorship. Financial support for the
Forum on Global Violence Prevention is provided by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services: Administration on Aging, Office of Women’s
Health; Anheuser-Busch InBev; Avon Foundation for Women; BD (Becton
Dickinson, and Company); Catholic Health Initiatives; Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention; Department of Education: Office of Safe and Drug-
Free Schools; Department of Justice: National Institute of Justice; Fetzer
Foundation; F. Felix Foundation; Foundation to Promote Open Society;
Kaiser Permanente; National Institutes of Health: National Institute on
Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of
Research on Women’s Health, John E. Fogarty International Center; Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation; and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration.
REFERENCES
García-Moreno, C., C. Watts, M. Ellsberg, L. Heise, and H. A. F. M. Jansen. 2005. WHO
Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women. Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization.
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INTRODUCTION
Pinheiro, P. S. 2006. Report of the independent expert for the United Nations study on vio-
lence against children. New York: United Nations.
WHO (World Health Organization). 2002. World report on violence and health. Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization.
WHO and LSHTM (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). 2010. Preventing
intimate partner and sexual violence against women: Taking action and generating evi-
dence. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
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