The past 25 years have seen a major paradigm shift in the field of violence prevention, from the assumption that violence is inevitable to the recognition that violence is preventable. Part of this shift has occurred in thinking about why violence occurs, and where intervention points might lie. In exploring the occurrence of violence, researchers have recognized the tendency for violent acts to cluster, to spread from place to place, and to mutate from one type to another. Furthermore, violent acts are often preceded or followed by other violent acts.

In the field of public health, such a process has also been seen in the infectious disease model, in which an agent or vector initiates a specific biological pathway leading to symptoms of disease and infectivity. The agent transmits from individual to individual, and levels of the disease in the population above the baseline constitute an epidemic. Although violence does not have a readily observable biological agent as an initiator, it can follow similar epidemiological pathways.

On April 30-May 1, 2012, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop to explore the contagious nature of violence. Part of the Forum's mandate is to engage in multisectoral, multidirectional dialogue that explores crosscutting, evidence-based approaches to violence prevention, and the Forum has convened four workshops to this point exploring various elements of violence prevention. The workshops are designed to examine such approaches from multiple perspectives and at multiple levels of society. In particular, the workshop on the contagion of violence focused on exploring the epidemiology of the contagion, describing possible processes and mechanisms by which violence is transmitted, examining how contextual factors mitigate or exacerbate the issue. Contagion of Violence: Workshop Summary covers the major topics that arose during the 2-day workshop. It is organized by important elements of the infectious disease model so as to present the contagion of violence in a larger context and in a more compelling and comprehensive way.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR WORKSHOP ON THE CONTAGION OF VIOLENCE
• FORUM ON GLOBAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION
• Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
  • REFERENCE
• I. Workshop Summary
  • 2. Patterns of Transmission of Violence
    • TYPES OF TRANSMISSION AND SYNDROMES
    • SUSCEPTIBILITY AND CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
    • IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION
    • REFERENCES
  • 3. Processes and Mechanisms of the Contagion of Violence
    • SHORT-TERM PROCESSES
    • LONG-TERM PROCESSES
    • AGGRESSION
    • SOCIAL INTEGRATION AND REINFORCEMENT LEARNING
    • GROUP DYNAMICS
    • INTERRUPTING THE TRANSMISSION OF VIOLENCE
    • REFERENCES
  • 4. The Role of Contextual Factors in the Contagion of Violence
    • INTRODUCTION
    • FACTORS THAT PROMOTE OR HINDER SUSCEPTIBILITY
    • IMMUNITY AND RESILIENCE
    • SUGGESTED RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
    • REFERENCES
  • 5. Contagion and Interruption in Practice
    • THE CONTAGION IN ACTION
    • UK Riots
    • INTERRUPTION AND APPLICATION
• II. Papers and Commentary from Speakers
  • II.1. VIOLENCE: CONTAGION, GROUP MARGINALIZATION, AND RESILIENCE OR PROTECTIVE FACTORS
    • The Need for Good Science
    • Types of Violence
    • Observations About Types of Violence Regarding Issues of Contagion, Group Marginalization, and Resilience
    • Protective Factors That Cultivate Resilience Against Various Types of Violence
  • II.2. SCHOOL-BASED VIOLENCE AND INTERRUPTION
    • Introduction
    • The Approach
    • Implementation and Lessons
    • Challenges
  • II.3. CONTAGION OF COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE: CONTAGION FROM ETHNOPOLITICAL VIOLENCE TO OTHER FORMS OF AGGRESSION AND VIOLENCE
    • War Affects Community-Level Indicators of Violence
    • War Affects Family-Level Indicators of Violence
    • War Affects the Child's Aggressive Behavior
    • Psychological Processes Accounting for the Contagion of War Violence to Individual Violence
    • Conclusions
  • II.4. THE CONTAGION OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR
    • Introduction
    • Impact of Media Reporting on Suicide
    • Suicide Clusters
    • Impact on Adolescents of Exposure to a Suicidal Peer
    • Strategies to Prevent Suicide Contagion
    • Conclusion
  • II.5. THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF MIRROR NEURONS IN THE CONTAGION OF VIOLENCE
    • Introduction
    • Mirror Neurons: Original Findings
    • Recent Developments in Mirror Neuron Research
    • The Study of the Mirror Neuron System with Noninvasive Techniques
    • Control of Mirroring to Prevent Contagion of Violence
    • Conclusions
  • II.6. CONTAGION OF VIOLENCE
    • Violence in Prisons
    • Root Causes Left Untreated
    • Release and Reentry
    • Conclusion
  • II.7. NATIVE ASPIRATIONS: ADDRESSING THE CONTAGION OF VIOLENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORICAL TRAUMA
    • Background
    • Effects of Historical Trauma
    • Institutional Cofactors
    • Psychosocial Cofactors
    • Native Aspirations Approach
  • II.8. CONTAGION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST REFUGEE WOMEN IN MIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT
    • Preuprooting
    • Uprooting/Flight
    • Transition
    • Resettlement
    • Adaptation and Integration
  • II.9. VIOLENCE IS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE
    • The Great Plagues and Violence
    • Misdiagnosis and Mistreatment
    • Scientific Understanding
    • Infectious Diseases and Violence in Populations
    • Infectious Diseases and Violence in Individuals
    • Transmission: Including Transmission Across Syndromes
    • Definitions—Violence Is a Contagious Disease—and Is Like an Infectious Disease
    • Treating Violence as an Infectious Epidemic Is Effective
  • II.10. EMOTIONAL AND EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF CONTAGIOUS VIOLENCE: OVERLAPPING FACTORS IN THE GENESIS OF DIVERSE TYPES OF NON-SANCTIONED HUMAN AGGRESSION
    • The Evolution and Mechanism of Aggression
    • The Useful Metaphor of Contagion
    • Cause(s) of Violence
    • Conclusion
  • REFERENCES
• APPENDIXES
  • Appendix A Workshop Agenda
  • Appendix B Glossary
  • Appendix C Speaker Biographical Sketches

Rapporteurs: Deepali M. Patel, Melissa A. Simon, and Rachel M. Taylor.

This study was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Health and Human Services: Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration on Community Living, Office on Women's Health; Anheuser-Busch InBev; the Avon Foundation for Women; BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company); Catholic Health Initiatives; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Department of Education: Office of Safe and Healthy Students; the Department of Justice: National Institute of Justice; Eli Lilly and Company; the F. Felix Foundation; the Fetzer Institute; the Foundation to Promote Open Society; the Joyce Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; the National Institutes of Health: National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Research on Women's Health, John E. Fogarty International Center; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The views presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Suggested citation:

IOM (Institute of Medicine) and NRC (National Research Council). 2013. Contagion of violence: Workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.