Go Big or Go Home: Reaching for a More Integrated View of Violence Prevention

Objective: The purpose of this commentary is to present key questions and challenges for the development of a more comprehensive violence prevention agenda. Method: Partial answers to questions posed come from a review of examples of violence prevention and intervention that illustrate bridge building across topics and developmental moments. Results and Conclusions: Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to locate and use opportunities for bridging across areas of prevention (e.g., drawing innovations from other areas like substance abuse prevention) and across the life span (e.g., finding ways to connect skill building in childhood and adolescence with prevention education in early adulthood). We can leverage the good knowledge that already exists about preventing violence by making stronger connections between the disparate locations where this knowledge has been generated and by envisioning a more interconnected plan for violence prevention that moves beyond single programs, limited doses, and an all-too-exclusive focus on individual rather than community change.