In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

"Drug Abuse Prevention: A School and Community Partnership, Third Edition", takes an evidence-based approach to teach students the important concepts and skills needed to design effective drug prevention programs. Covering more than just the facts, this text provides a background of drug use and abuse and presents the principles and skills of prevention, with particular focus on adolescents and school settings. It reinforces the importance of schools forming community partnerships with key institutions and the application of policy tools to enhance the impact of education alone. -- From publisher's description.

The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention is the most reliable and the only comprehensive source on research and experience on the prevention of crime in the United States and across the Western world.

This book gives mental health professionals the knowledge and practical skills they need to provide effective treatment to individuals who engage in IPV and have a history of exposure to trauma.

Violence against women and children is a serious public health concern, with costs at multiple levels of society. Although violence is a threat to everyone, women and children are particularly susceptible to victimization 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 children top 80 percent. These data demonstrate that violence poses a high burden on global health and that violence against women and children is common and universal. Preventing Violence Against Women and Children focuses on these elements of the cycle as they relate to interrupting this transmission of violence. 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.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls argues that women and girls are vulnerable across all areas of society, and that therefore a commitment to end violence against women and girls needs to be embedded into all development programmes, regardless of sectorial focus. This book presents an innovative framework for sensitisation and action across development programmes, based on emerging best practices and lessons learnt, and illustrated through a number of country contexts and a range of programmes. Overall, it argues that SDG 5 can only be achieved with a systematic model for mainstreaming an end to violence against women and girls, no matter what the priorities of the particular development programme might be. Demonstrating how the approach can be applied across contexts, the authors explore cases from the energy sector, health and humanitarian intervention, and from countries as varied as South Sudan, Myanmar, Rwanda, Nepal, and Kenya. Drawing on nearly three decades of experience working on gender, health, and violence against women programmes as both practitioners and academics, the authors present key lessons which can be used by students, researchers, and practitioners alike.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious social problem affecting both men and women worldwide that can lead to a variety of negative mental and physical health effects. This book contains nine chapters that address the problem of IPV, exploring methods of preventing IPV as well as treatment for victims of IPV. Chapter One centres on the issue of blame, reviewing current research on the associations between self-blaming attributions and psychological outcomes among survivors of IPV. Chapter Two proposes a theoretical reflection on the phenomenon of domestic violence based on its understanding as a problem sustained by cultural beliefs and discourses and which can be tackled through education and the promotion of public debate, by means of institutional advertisements. Chapter Three highlights the importance of capacity building Brazilian police forces to tackle cases of IPV as well as to protect and enable victims to fully exercise their rights. Chapter Four argues that the Domestic Violence Risk instrument used by Portuguese police to assess IPV cases should be reworked, as it tends to assign a medium level of risk in cases that the scientific community would likely associate with high risk. Chapter Five discusses the relationship between IPV and academic stress. Chapter Six reviews research on factors affecting women's treatment engagement in the aftermath of IPV, including characteristics of the violence/violent relationship, types of mental health problems following IPV, and individual differences in personality and demographics. Chapter Seven deals with the coping mechanisms available to women living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania who experience IPV. Chapter Eight details the relevance of methodological and ethical aspects of studies on violence involving children and how these requirements may affect research validity in this domain. Finally, Chapter Nine presents a study of violence against women media campaigns that use graphic imagery and how they impact fears of behaving assertively and of victimization, safety self-efficacy, and collective female self-esteem.

The new edition of Prevention Is Primary provides models, methods, and approaches for building health and equity in communities. This comprehensive book includes the theory, concepts, and models needed to harness social justice and practice primary prevention of unnecessary illness and injury. Ideal for students as well as practitioners, this thoroughly revised and updated second edition combines an overview of advances in the field with effective approaches in the current economic and health care climate. With contributions from noted experts, Prevention Is Primary shows practical applications of intervention science to social and health problems and issues facing at-risk and vulnerable groups. The book describes the overarching framework and principles guiding prevention efforts, including a focus on social justice and health equity, and community resilience. It explores the transition from prevention theory to implementation and practice and from interdisciplinary collaboration to evaluation. Highlighting the book's usefulness as a teaching and learning tool, Prevention Is Primary has real world examples, learning objectives, and review questions for each chapter.