BUILDING AN EVIDENCE Base for PRIMARY Interpersonal Violence PREVENTION Programming

Programs that deal with interpersonal violence address secondary or tertiary interventions but few studies have evaluated the effects of primary prevention efforts. Building an evidence-based program for primary prevention of interpersonal violence must begin with interventions with young people and requires a deeper understanding of the theories, risk factors more thorough evaluation of primary prevention programs. This review provides further insight into the issue of interpersonal violence by outlining current theories of perpetration, current finding on risk factors associated with perpetration, research related to prevention programming, and health behavior theory and approaches used to design and implement prevention programs. While the literature is replete with research pertaining to interpersonal violence in regards to secondary and tertiary prevention efforts, there is relatively little literature proving effectiveness of primary prevention efforts over the long-term. Many programs providing primary prevention programming do show promise and were able to show short-term behavior and attitude change with some long-term knowledge change, but much more rigorous evaluation of these efforts is warranted. The most promising practices are found in taking a comprehensive ecological approach to primary prevention planning and measuring its components.