Abstract
Purpose of Review
Violence is a leading cause of death, disability, and health inequity in the United States. This review summarizes the scientific literature on place-based interventions and violence, describes study design challenges, and suggests future directions for this group of interventions.
Recent Findings
Violence prevention strategies commonly target high-risk individuals, but recent research has found that place-based interventions are practical, sustainable, and high-impact opportunities that benefit communities at large. This body of work has largely consisted of quasi-experimental studies of land and building place-based interventions and interpersonal violence.
Summary
Current epidemiological evidence suggests that place-based interventions are cost-effective solutions for violence prevention. Future work is needed using mixed methods to better understand their mechanisms of action and to inform implementation efforts. There are opportunities for the broader development of implementation science to bring promising and established place-based interventions to scale and to extend these interventions to other types of violence.
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Funding
This work was supported, in part, by the following grants: NIH/NIEHS T32ES007322, NIH/NIAAA R01AA024941, NIH/NICHD R01HD095609, and CDC/NCIPC R49CE003094. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the CDC.
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Gobaud, A.N., Jacobowitz, A.L., Mehranbod, C.A. et al. Place-Based Interventions and the Epidemiology of Violence Prevention. Curr Epidemiol Rep 9, 316–325 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-022-00301-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-022-00301-z