Violence and Injury Prevention

Violence publications and resources

Below you will find publications and resources, including documents, fact sheets, newsletters, posters and resolutions related to violence and violence prevention.

If you require additional hard copies of our publications, please fill in the publications order form

World report on violence and health (2002)

The World Health Organization launched the first World report on violence and health on October 3rd, 2002. The goals of the report are to raise awareness about the problem of violence globally, to make the case that violence is preventable, and to highlight the crucial role that public health has to play in addressing its causes and consequences.

Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence (2010)

This guide outlines the nature, magnitude, risks and consequences of intimate partner and sexual violence. It outlines strategies to prevent these forms of violence against women and presents a sex-step framework for planning, implementing and evaluating prevention policies and programs. It also emphasizes the importance of integrating scientific evaluation into all prevention activities in order to expand current knowledge of what works to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence.

Violence prevention: the evidence (2009)

WHO and Liverpool John Moores University launched Violence prevention: the evidence, an eight-part series of briefings on the evidence for interventions to prevent interpersonal and self-directed violence. By spotlighting evidence for the effectiveness of interventions, Violence prevention: the evidence provides clear directions for how violence prevention funders, policy makers and programme implementers can boost the impact of their violence prevention efforts.

Preventing violence and reducing its impact: How development agencies can help (2008)

This document makes the case that violence seriously hampers the development of low- and middle-income countries. It calls for increased attention to, and investment in, violence prevention by development agencies and identifies gaps in their current programming. It recommends a strengthened agenda to prevent violence and reduce its impact in low- and middle-income countries.

Manual for estimating the economic costs of injuries due to interpersonal and self-directed violence (2008)

Cover of the manual for estimating the economic cost of injuries

The manual provides a standardized set of recommendations to estimate the direct and indirect economic costs of interpersonal and self-directed violence. It is intended primarily for economists, public health experts and researchers interested in conducting studies of this nature.

Third Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention Report (2007)

This report, the third of its kind, reviews the progress that has been made in the field of violence prevention since the October 2002 launch of the World report on violence and health and the Global Campaign for Violence Prevention. It sets out what WHO and its partners can do over the next 5 years to expand violence prevention programming and to demonstrate the impact of violence prevention.

Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence (2006)

This guide provides the necessary tools and information to governments, civil society and international organizations in their efforts to prevent and respond to violence against children.

Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention 2005: Changing the face of violence prevention (2005)

This report describes the many activities that have been organized as part of the Global Campaign for Violence Prevention, since its launch in 2002. The document reviews global activities coordinated by WHO and its collaborators, provides regional reports on recent developments and promising new programmes, and surveys the work of the Violence Prevention Alliance and its progress in building global commitment to violence prevention.

Preventing violence: a guide to implementing the recommendations of the World report on violence and health (2004)

The document provides conceptual, policy and practical suggestions on how to implement each of the six country-level activities, and promotes a multi-sectoral, data-driven and evidence-based approach. Should the resources for achieving certain aspects of the recommendations be lacking, the information contained in the guide will still be useful for planning purposes.

The economic dimensions of interpersonal violence (2004)

This report on The economic dimensions of interpersonal violence strengthens the case for investing in violence prevention by highlighting the enormous economic costs of the consequences of interpersonal violence, and reviewing the limited but nonetheless striking evidence for the cost-effectiveness of prevention programmes.

Handbook for the documentation of interpersonal violence prevention programmes (2004)

This document describes how to systematically identify and document violence prevention programmes, including attributes such as their target populations, interventions, evaluation methods and evidence of effectiveness.

Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention (2004)

Based on the 2002 World report on violence and health, which focuses on the scale of violence and provides a detailed overview of its causes and methods for prevention, Milestones of a global campaign for violence prevention describes the one year follow-up to the release of the World report on violence and health, using the nine recommendations as a reporting framework.

Guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence (2003)

The guidelines aim to improve professional health services for all individuals who have been victims of sexual violence by providing health care workers with the knowledge and skills that are necessary for the management of victims; standards for the provision of both health care and forensic services to victims; and guidance on the establishment of health care and forensic services for victims.

Intervening with perpetrators of intimate partner violence: a global perspective (2003)

This descriptive study presents information on the characteristics, operational philosophies, funding mechanisms, intervention goals and content, availability of evaluation results, and other features of interest for batterer intervention programmes in 37 countries outside Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Guide to United Nations resources and activities for the prevention of interpersonal violence (2002)

The guide, which reflects the work of 15 United Nations agencies on preventing and addressing the consequences of interpersonal violence, describes related programs, publications and databases and provides contact information for focal points for interpersonal violence prevention within each agency.

Small arms and global health (revised August 2001)

This research report, a survey of the large body of scientific work which has been carried out over the past few decades on small arms and health, seeks to broaden the definition of the problem of small arms by demonstrating its public health importance and introducing the public health community's longstanding emphasis on scientific methodologies and prevention.

Flyers

Preventing violence and reducing its impact:

Fact sheets

Violence and alcohol

Facts sheets on interpersonal violence and alcohol: general policy briefing plus specific fact sheets on alcohol and child maltreatment; youth violence; intimate partner violence and elder abuse.

Interpersonal violence and illicit drugs

Interpersonal violence and illicit drug use are major public health challenges that are strongly linked. Involvement in drug use can increase the risks of being both a victim and/or perpetrator of violence, while experiencing violence can increase the risks of initiating illicit drug use.

Violence and health

Fact sheets

Facts sheets from the World report on violence and health (2002): child abuse, collective violence, elder abuse, intimate partner violence, self-directed violence, sexual violence and youth violence.

Violence and disasters

Violence is an important issue facing communities affected by natural disasters, though the full extent of the problem has not been thoroughly studied. This is a WHO fact sheet based on currently available data on violence and disasters.

Newsletters

Newsletters of the Global Campaign for Violence Prevention

Newsletters

Posters

"Album" poster series (2005)

Posters

This black and white "Album" series depicts how lives can be scarred forever due to violence. What for some could be snapshots of cherished memories are, for survivors of violence, a remembrance of wounds with lifelong consequences.

"Explaining away violence" poster series (2003)

Posters

The "Explanations" poster series features victims of violence and the accounts they give to explain away their injuries, touching upon the shame and taboo which surround violence in many cultures.

"Violence in red" poster series (2003)

Posters

The "Red" poster series portrays bold close ups of parts of the human body tainted in red, symbolizing the impact of violence on the body and on health in general.

Related resolutions

Implementing the recommendations of the World report on violence and health, WHA56.24 (2003)

Resolution of the World Health Assembly, 56th session, 28 May 2003

Implementing the recommendations of the World report on violence and health, EB111.R7 (2003)

Resolution of the Executive Board of the WHO, 111th Session, 23 January 2003

Violence and health, EB109/15 (2001)

Resolution of the Executive Board of the WHO, 109th session, 14 November 2001

Concerted public health action on anti-personnel mines, WHA51.8 (1998)

Resolution of the World Health Assembly, 51st session, 16 May 1998

Concerted public health action on anti-personnel mines, EB101.R23 (1998)

Resolution of the Executive Board of the WHO, 101st Session, 27 January 1998

Prevention of violence, WHA50.19 (1997)

Resolution of the World Health Assembly, 50th WHA, 14 May 1997

Prevention of violence: a public health priority, WHA49.25 (1996)

Resolution of the World Health Assembly, 49th session, 25 May 1996

Publications and resources

Quick links

Contact us

Ms. Laura Sminkey
Communications Officer
sminkeyl@who.int
Tel.: +41 22 791 45 47
Mob.: +41 79 249 35 20