1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 3

The Impact of Violence in Pennsylvania 2 for grants to communities to develop strategies to address juvenile problems and $17 million for new or expanded correctional facilities. The budget also allocated increased federal funds to provide services to victims of domestic violence and to educate school-aged children about rape prevention. The objective of this report is to systematically identify the relative frequency of violence in Pennsylvania, and to estimate the health care costs related to it. This information serves two purposes; (a) it identifies the impact of violence on the health care system in Pennsylvania, and (b) it provides information of relevance to the evaluation of violence prevention programs. Background Violence often appears to be an intractable problem in the United States. Crime, and specifically homicide, has been an important concern for Americans for many years. Concerns about violence have led to interest in finding better ways to prevent and control viol...

violence and health: summary

The abuse of older people by family members dates back to ancient times. Until the advent of initiatives to address child abuse and domestic violence in the last quarter of the 20th century, it remained a private matter, hidden from public view. Initially seen as a social welfare issue and subsequently a problem of ageing, abuse of the elderly, like other forms of family violence, has developed into a public health and criminal justice concern. These two fields – public health and criminal justice – have therefore dictated to a large extent how abuse of the elderly is viewed, how it is analysed, and how it is dealt with. This chapter focuses on abuse of older people by family members or others known to them, either in their homes or in residential or other institutional settings. It does not cover other types of violence that may be directed at older people, such as violence by strangers, street crime, gang warfare or military conflict. Mistreatment of older people – referred to as ‘‘elder abuse’ ’ – was first described in British scientific journals in 1975 under the term ‘‘granny battering’ ’ (1, 2). As a social and political issue, though, it was the United States Congress that first seized on the problem, followed later by researchers and practitioners. During the 1980s scientific research and government actions were reported