Strategic Vision

The different forms of violence—child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, elder abuse and suicidal behavior—are interconnected and often share the same root causes. Understanding the overlapping causes of violence and the things that can protect people and communities can help us better prevent violence in all its forms. CDC’s Preventing Multiple Forms of Violence: A Strategic Vision for Connecting the Dots describes the Division of Violence Prevention’s 5-year vision and areas of strategic focus to help us understand, respond to, and ultimately prevent violence across the lifespan.

Why use a cross-cutting approach?

Several decades of research, prevention, and services have revealed a lot about the different forms of violence and how to prevent and respond to them. One fact clearly emerging from this body of work is that the different forms of violence are strongly interconnected. Previous research indicates:

• Victims of one form of violence are likely to experience other forms of violence.
• People who have been violent in one context (e.g., toward peers) are likely to be violent in another context (e.g., toward dating partners).
• The different forms of violence share common consequences that have health effects across the lifespan such as mental, emotional, physical or social problems. These consequences may contribute to chronic health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, or diabetes.
• Different forms of violence share common risk and protective factors.

How will this document be used?

This document communicates CDC’s priorities related to violence prevention for the next 5 years. CDC will use this document to prioritize our portfolio of work to better address the connections among the different forms of violence, shape future funding initiatives, and guide our collaborative efforts with partners across the country.