Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 360, Issue 9339, 5 October 2002, Pages 1083-1088
The Lancet

Public Health
The world report on violence and health

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11133-0Get rights and content

Summary

In 1996, the World Health Assembly declared violence a major public health issue. To follow up on this resolution, on Oct 3 this year, WHO released the first World Report on Violence and Health. The report analyses different types of violence including child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, elder abuse, self-directed violence, and collective violence. For all these types of violence, the report explores the magnitude of the health and social effects, the risk and protective factors, and the types of prevention efforts that have been initiated. The launch of the report will be followed by a 1-year Global Campaign on Violence Prevention, focusing on implementation of the recommendations. This article summarises some of the main points of the world report.

Section snippets

History of violence as a public health issue

In many countries, violence prevention is still a new or emerging field in public health. The public health community has started only recently to realise the contributions it can make to reducing violence and mitigating its consequences. In 1949, Gordon called for injury prevention efforts to be based on the understanding of causes, in a similar way to prevention efforts for communicable and other diseases.2 In 1962, Gomez, referring to the WHO definition of health, stated that it is obvious

Why should the public health sector be involved in violence prevention?

The public health sector is directly concerned with violence not only because of its huge effect on health and health services, but also because of the significant contributions that can and should be made by public health workers in reducing its consequences. Public health can benefit efforts in this area with its focus on prevention, scientific approach, potential to coordinate multi-disciplinary and multisectoral efforts, and role in assuring the availability of services for victims.

Public

Overview

The report is a result of 3 years of work by more than 160 experts from more than 70 countries and regional consultations held in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Much of the available information regarding violence and health at the global level has been compiled in one document. It is the first time that WHO has taken such a clear and visible stand in favour of violence prevention. With endorsements of political leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, and Oscar

What challenges does the movement to prevent violence face?

The movement to prevent violence faces many challenges. First and foremost, we need to convince policy makers, ministers of health, and the public that violence prevention programmes and policies can be cost effective compared with alternatives such as incarceration. Although more scientific evidence is needed in many areas, good evidence is already available for some types of violence. For example, in an economic analysis of several violence prevention strategies compared with incarceration in

Conclusion

With the publication of the World Report on Violence and Health, the international community now has a compilation of some of the best available knowledge on the prevention of violence and the role of the public health sector. The report should serve as catalyst for debate and action. During the 1-year campaign that starts this week, WHO and its partners will bring this debate to countries around the world to ensure the wide use of the report and the implementation of its recommendations into

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