Enhancing Violence Prevention in At-Risk Youth Ronnie S. Jenkins Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 1992, pp. 270-271 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2010.0092
For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/267863/summary
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ENHANCING VIOLENCE PREVENTION INAT-RISKYOUTH To the EDITOR: On December 10,1990, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan spoke in a closed circuit television address to attendees at the Forum on Youth Violence in Minority Communities: Homicide and violent behavior are nationally recognized, preventable public health problems that traditionally have been left to the criminal justice system. The public health sector has a legitimate and important role in working together with the criminal justice, social service, and educational sectors to reduce the dramatic toll in injuries and deaths that violence and abusive behavior inflict on our society.1
Drs. Hammond and Yung [Vol. 2, No. 3:359-373] have heard the Secretary's call. They have done an excellent job in describing the epidemiology of violence in at-risk youth, and presenting the omnipresent threat of violence as a public health issue. They have selected Positive Adolescents Choices Training as an intervention that is tailored for African-American youth, incorporates evaluation, and addresses both cognitive and behavioral strategies. This middleschool program based in the Dayton public school system involves small-group training in six skill areas: giving positive feedback, giving negative feedback, accepting negative feedback, resisting peer pressure, solving problems, and negotiating.
I applaud the authors' use of peers for behavior modification. Programs that use peer-group influence to shape norms and nonviolent behaviors are successful because adolescents are likely to be influenced by peer-group values.2 I am also impressed by the presence of an incentive system to reward active participation and appropriate behavior in training sessions. The incentive system should be continued and expanded beyond the training sessions. The training could be enhanced if it included areas such as training in life skills, mentoring by African-American males, intense manhood development (rites of passage), academic tutoring and cultural-specific curricula, career development courses, etc. These topics will help address areas based on the participants' assessment of their needs. These assessments typically reveal
unemployment, few educational opportunities, low levels of achievement, low self-esteem, and lack of problem-solving skills. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1992
____________________________________________________________271 Positive Adolescents Choices Training embodies a recommendation of a work group (Violence Prevention Strategies Directed Toward High-Risk Minority Youths) of the December 10,1990 forum, of which I was a member. The group concluded that targeting narrowly defined populations can be crucial to successful intervention.3 The work group identified five populations of highrisk youths that we considered to be of highest priority: 1) youths who live in geographically defined areas in which rates of violent death and injury are extremely high; 2) gang members and youths age eight to 18 years who are at risk of becoming gang members; 3) youths who are members of families that have problems related to violence; 4) violent youths; and 5) victims of violence, relatives of victims, and witnesses to violence.4 To be truly effective, detailed information is needed regarding the needs of each target population. I concur with Hammond and Yung that there is a crucial need for longitudinal studies addressing the effectiveness of different prevention approaches and investigations to develop a greater understanding of the origin of violence in African-American communities. Since violence among youth is
multicausal, the greatest impact will come from multiple intervention programs. The handicap to longitudinal studies is funding. To this end, I congratulate Dr. Sullivan for making available $1.5 million in grants to improve health and human services to minority men, but this is hardly enough to address one of America's most treasured resources—the black male. The scientific and programmatic work needed tobreakthiscycleof killing
requires $100 million. A partnership among government, foundations, the media, and education, business and industry, civic and fraternal, and religious groups should be formed to fund community intervention programs which will lead to prevention and a reduction in the consequences of violence. —Ronnie S. Jenkins, m.s.
Health Program Consultant Division of Public Health
Georgia Department of Human Resources 878 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 212 Atlanta, GA 30308 REFERENCES 1. Sullivan L. The prevention of violence—A top HHS priority. Presentation prepared for: Youth Violence in Minority Communities: A forum on setting the agenda for prevention, Atlanta (GA), Dec 1990. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1990. 2. DiClemente RJ, Houston-Hamilton A. Health promotion strategies for prevention of Human Immune Deficiency virus infection among minority adolescents. Health Ed 1989;10:40-1. 3. Mercy JA, CCarroll PW. New directions in violence prediction: The public health arena. Violence Victims 1989;4:17-25.
4. Northrop D, Jacklin B, Cohen S, et al. Violence prevention strategies targeted toward high-risk minority youths. Background paper prepared for: Forum on youth violence in minority communities: Setting the agenda for prevention, Atlanta (GA), Dec 1990. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, 1990.
For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/267863/summary
Access provided at 6 Jan 2020 19:41 GMT from UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich
270
Brief communication
ENHANCING VIOLENCE PREVENTION INAT-RISKYOUTH To the EDITOR: On December 10,1990, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan spoke in a closed circuit television address to attendees at the Forum on Youth Violence in Minority Communities: Homicide and violent behavior are nationally recognized, preventable public health problems that traditionally have been left to the criminal justice system. The public health sector has a legitimate and important role in working together with the criminal justice, social service, and educational sectors to reduce the dramatic toll in injuries and deaths that violence and abusive behavior inflict on our society.1
Drs. Hammond and Yung [Vol. 2, No. 3:359-373] have heard the Secretary's call. They have done an excellent job in describing the epidemiology of violence in at-risk youth, and presenting the omnipresent threat of violence as a public health issue. They have selected Positive Adolescents Choices Training as an intervention that is tailored for African-American youth, incorporates evaluation, and addresses both cognitive and behavioral strategies. This middleschool program based in the Dayton public school system involves small-group training in six skill areas: giving positive feedback, giving negative feedback, accepting negative feedback, resisting peer pressure, solving problems, and negotiating.
I applaud the authors' use of peers for behavior modification. Programs that use peer-group influence to shape norms and nonviolent behaviors are successful because adolescents are likely to be influenced by peer-group values.2 I am also impressed by the presence of an incentive system to reward active participation and appropriate behavior in training sessions. The incentive system should be continued and expanded beyond the training sessions. The training could be enhanced if it included areas such as training in life skills, mentoring by African-American males, intense manhood development (rites of passage), academic tutoring and cultural-specific curricula, career development courses, etc. These topics will help address areas based on the participants' assessment of their needs. These assessments typically reveal
unemployment, few educational opportunities, low levels of achievement, low self-esteem, and lack of problem-solving skills. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1992
____________________________________________________________271 Positive Adolescents Choices Training embodies a recommendation of a work group (Violence Prevention Strategies Directed Toward High-Risk Minority Youths) of the December 10,1990 forum, of which I was a member. The group concluded that targeting narrowly defined populations can be crucial to successful intervention.3 The work group identified five populations of highrisk youths that we considered to be of highest priority: 1) youths who live in geographically defined areas in which rates of violent death and injury are extremely high; 2) gang members and youths age eight to 18 years who are at risk of becoming gang members; 3) youths who are members of families that have problems related to violence; 4) violent youths; and 5) victims of violence, relatives of victims, and witnesses to violence.4 To be truly effective, detailed information is needed regarding the needs of each target population. I concur with Hammond and Yung that there is a crucial need for longitudinal studies addressing the effectiveness of different prevention approaches and investigations to develop a greater understanding of the origin of violence in African-American communities. Since violence among youth is
multicausal, the greatest impact will come from multiple intervention programs. The handicap to longitudinal studies is funding. To this end, I congratulate Dr. Sullivan for making available $1.5 million in grants to improve health and human services to minority men, but this is hardly enough to address one of America's most treasured resources—the black male. The scientific and programmatic work needed tobreakthiscycleof killing
requires $100 million. A partnership among government, foundations, the media, and education, business and industry, civic and fraternal, and religious groups should be formed to fund community intervention programs which will lead to prevention and a reduction in the consequences of violence. —Ronnie S. Jenkins, m.s.
Health Program Consultant Division of Public Health
Georgia Department of Human Resources 878 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 212 Atlanta, GA 30308 REFERENCES 1. Sullivan L. The prevention of violence—A top HHS priority. Presentation prepared for: Youth Violence in Minority Communities: A forum on setting the agenda for prevention, Atlanta (GA), Dec 1990. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1990. 2. DiClemente RJ, Houston-Hamilton A. Health promotion strategies for prevention of Human Immune Deficiency virus infection among minority adolescents. Health Ed 1989;10:40-1. 3. Mercy JA, CCarroll PW. New directions in violence prediction: The public health arena. Violence Victims 1989;4:17-25.
4. Northrop D, Jacklin B, Cohen S, et al. Violence prevention strategies targeted toward high-risk minority youths. Background paper prepared for: Forum on youth violence in minority communities: Setting the agenda for prevention, Atlanta (GA), Dec 1990. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, 1990.
