opportunities For ACtion
8. Address inequity in violence among young people. The determinants of violence among young
people include underlying structural, social and economic factors such as inequality, poverty and unemployment. Equity needs to be incorporated into all levels of government policy for governments are to address the inequitable distribution of violence among young people and achieve a fairer society for tomorrow’s young people. All policies
5. Addressing violence among young people in the European Region: opportunities for action 85 need to be equitable and incorporate health,
as promoted by the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (6). The health sector has a key role to advocate for this across other government departments and to highlight violence among young people as a consequence of social policies. As part of this, policies and programmes should address gender inequity associated with the different types of violence. Further, some policies, such as those for universal health care, education,
early child development, fair employment for parents and social protection, should seek to look after the disadvantaged (Box 5.7). The health sector needs to ensure that the prevention of violence is universally incorporated into primary health care services and can support community-based action paying special attention to socially disadvantaged people. Targeting programmes to the most deprived people should also be considered.
Box 5.5. Sharing of health data in England
As part of the Tackling Knives Action Programme, there has been a focus at the national level since 2008 on extending emergency department non-confidential data-sharing between hospitals and local partners on community safety partnerships. This work has involved encouraging hospitals to collect and share a minimum dataset informed by the Cardiff model (see section 4.4.5). The key information in the dataset is time, location and type of assault. A key part of this national programme of work has also been support for local and regional areas to overcome obstacles to sharing information and sharing examples of good practice between areas. As a result of the focus on data-sharing in England, more than 100 hospitals with emergency departments (which is more than 50% of all hospitals with emergency departments) are collecting and sharing information according to an informal survey conducted in March 2010. This compares with about 20 in June 2008. The recently elected coalition government has made a public commitment to “make hospitals share non-confidential information with the police so that they know where gun and knife crime is happening and can target stop-and-search in gun and knife crime hotspots”. A renewed focus on data-sharing is therefore expected to tackle violence during the coming years. Increasing attention is expected to be paid to the effects of data-sharing as it is extended nationally.
Source: personal communication, Martin Teff, Department of Health of England, London, United Kingdom.
Box 5.6. Strengthening laws in Germany after shootings at schools
In recent years, two school shootings caused public outcries in Germany. On 26 April 2002, a 19-year-old male student killed 16 people (teachers and students) with a gun in a school in Erfurt. Seven years later, on 11 March 2009, a 17-year-old male student shot and killed 15 people in and outside a school in Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg. Both students ended their shooting sprees by taking their own lives. The ensuing public debate and policy response about possible prevention strategies focused on two main areas: access to guns and the role that violent computer games might play in the life of teenagers. These shootings resulted in several changes to legislation, especially the 2002 shooting. The law for the protection of children and teenagers now proscribes that all commercially available computer games have to be checked by an independent organization to determine whether the content contains items that would encourage violence behaviour. All computer games are now labelled with an age rating. Second, the gun control law was altered so that everyone younger than 25 years has to present a psychological assessment to get a gun licence. In addition, regulations for the storage of guns have been tightened. These examples show that singular but catastrophic events can be used for advocacy and, in this case, prompted politicians to react in response to the public outcry. The measures that were introduced are being evaluated to assess their effectiveness.
Source: personal communication, Dirk Baier and Sussan Rabold, Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, Hanover, Germany.
86 5. Addressing violence among young people in the European Region: opportunities for action
5.4 Conclusions
Interpersonal violence is the third leading cause of death among young people in the European Region, with far-reaching consequences for the mental and physical health of young people and on societal development. Although violence is a public health priority in the Region, few countries have devoted adequate resources to preventing it. Given this insufficient response, this report proposes a set of actions for Member States, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders. This report has outlined the large burden of violence among young people, its causes and the cost–effectiveness of prevention programmes. These make compelling arguments for advocating for increased investment in prevention and for mainstreaming objectives for preventing violence among young people into other areas of health and public policy. The public is increasingly demanding a new course of action; this report has proposed a strong preventive approach towards the challenge of violence among young people based on a growing evidence base and practical experience.
This is the time to turn the tide in each Member State and tackle the root causes of violence and achieve greater social justice for tomorrow’s young people.
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Annex 1. Additional results and definitions 89