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Interpersonal violence (IPV) kills each year about 90,000 people in the European Region, and many more suffer non-fatal injuries and chronic, health consequences as a result of interpersonal violence, i.e. child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner violence, elder abuse and sexual violence.
Despite the fact that violence has always been present, we do not have to accept it as an inevitable part of the human condition. As long as there has been violence, there have also been community initiatives and interventions by the judiciary to prevent or limit it. None has been completely successful, but all have made their contribution to this defining mark of civilization.
Since the early 1980s, the field of public health has been a growing asset in this response. A wide range of public health practitioners, researchers and systems have set themselves the tasks of understanding the roots of violence and preventing its occurrence.
Their experience and the scientific studies they have conducted clearly demonstrate that violence can be prevented and its impact reduced, by addressing the factors that contribute to violent responses – whether they are factors of attitude and behaviour or related to larger social, economic, political environment.
Violence can be prevented, for instance by developing safe, stable and nurturing relationships between children and their parents and caregivers, by reducing the availability and harmful use of alcohol, and by changing cultural and social norms that support violence. Interpersonal violence is strongly associated with such macro-level social factors as unemployment, income inequality, rapid social change and access to education.
Any comprehensive violence prevention strategy must be integrated with policies directed at these macro-level social factors and harness their potential to reduce the in equities which fuel interpersonal violence.
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“Working together for a violence free Europe”
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