ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the term "prevention" is used generically to refer to all forms of intervention, including work with violent youth for whom the goal is to avert further acts of violence. The public health model is most clearly applicable to an infectious disease spreading through a population, but since violence is not a disease, the distinctions among types of prevention are less meaningful. Despite its shortcomings, the Cambridge-Somerville study was groundbreaking because it was one of the first systematic attempts to evaluate a delinquency prevention program. Although there are hundreds of commercially available violence prevention programs for schools, most have not been rigorously tested and shown to be effective. The challenge for school authorities is to select programs that have been adequately tested; there is no education counterpart to the United States Food and Drugs Administration to assure that a drug or medical treatment is safe and effective before it is placed on the market.
