Youth Violence Prevention - Media and Youth Violence

The U. S. Surgeon General's report identifies prevention strategies found to be effective and ineffective for specific populations. Table 3 lists those findings.

TABLE 3 Strategies for Youth Violence Prevention
Effective Strategies	Ineffective Strategies
For General Populations of Young People: Primary Prevention
Skills training Behavior monitoring and reinforcement Behavioral techniques for classroom management Building school capacity (to plan, implement, and sustain positive changes) Continuous progress programs (for student achievement) Cooperative learning Positive youth development programs	Peer counseling Peer mediation Peer leaders Nonpromotion to succeeding grades
For Children at High Risk of Violence: Secondary Preventionn
Parent training (to use specific child-management skills) Home visitation Compensatory education (to improve academic performance) Moral reasoning Social problem solving Thinking skills	Gun buyback programs Firearm training Mandatory gun ownership Redirecting youth behavior Shifting peer group norms
For Violent or Seriously Delinquent Youth: Tertiary Prevention
Social perspective taking, role taking Multimodal interventions Behavioral interventions Skills training Marital and family therapy by clinical staff Wraparound (social) services	Boot camps Residential programs Milieu treatment Behavioral token programs Waivers to adult court Social casework Individual counseling

HOW DO LARGE-SCALE PREVENTION PROGRAMS WORK BEST?

advertisement

Limited research shows that the successful implementation of a large-scale program depends as much on effective implementation as it does on the program's content and characteristics. Important factors for success in implementing a national program in a local community are:

• Focus on a distinct problem;
• Appropriate program for the specific target population, participant, and family;
• Staff buy-in to the program;
• Motivated and effective project leadership;
• Effective program director;
• Well-trained and motivated staff;
• Plentiful resources; and
• Implementation of the program with fidelity to its design.