What works to prevent youth violence: evidence summary

Conclusion

This review was undertaken to support strategic thinking around what works to prevent youth violence. The report has focused on primary prevention interventions – those aimed as presenting violence before it occurs (WHO, 2002) and, therefore aligns with the Scottish Government’s public health approach to tackling violence  (ScotPHN, 2019).

From the evidence reviewed above it can be concluded that available interventions can prevent youth violence. Specifically, school and education-based approaches are effective in doing so, and dating violence prevention programmes, family-focused interventions, mentoring, and community-based coalitions have shown promise within this context.

Overall, much of the available evidence on the effectiveness of primary interventions to prevent youth violence has come from high income countries (such as the USA). In this context, it is important to account for cultural context in the application of interventions within a Scottish context.

Moreover, when considering the implications of these findings the CDC Technical Package for the Prevention of youth violence acknowledges that “there can be significant heterogeneity among the programs, policies, or practices that fall within one approach or strategy area in terms of the nature and quality of the available evidence. Not all programs, policies, or practices that utilize the same approach (e.g., home visitation, mentoring) are equally effective, and even those that are effective may not work across all populations” (CDC, 2016:8). This should be kept in mind when considering how the findings of this review may transfer to young people in Scotland.

Some interventions have been identified as out of scope for this report. While these interventions have not been included within this report, this does not necessarily indicate that they do not work. Rather, they have been excluded due to limited available evidence (e.g. high-quality evaluations) or they are beyond the primary prevention focus of this report (e.g. topic out of scope).