How the health sector can reduce violence by treating it as a contagion

Abstract

Violence is best understood as an epidemic health problem, and it can be effectively prevented and treated using health methods to stop events and outbreaks and to reduce its spread. This health framing is important because it recognizes that violence is a threat to the health of populations, that exposure to violence causes serious health problems, and that violent behavior is contagious and can be treated as a contagious process. Relatively standard and highly effective health approaches to changing behaviors and norms are increasingly being applied to the problem of violence and are showing strong evidence of impact among individuals and communities. We need to mobilize our nation’s health care and public health systems and methods to work with communities and other sectors to stop this epidemic.