Connecting the Dots
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. Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Links Among Multiple Forms of Violence [3 MB, 16 Pages] shares research on the connections between different forms of violence and describes how these connections affect communities. This publication remains a critical foundation for how we approach our violence prevention work.
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 that continuously emerges from this body of work is that the different forms of violence are strongly interconnected. Previous research indicates that:
- 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.
- The different forms of violence share common risk and protective factors.
To learn more about how different types of violence are connected and hear how communities are using this approach to prevent violence, visit Connecting the Dots on DVP’s VetoViolence website.
To explore connections between different types of violence and their shared risk and protective factors visit the Connections Selector on DVP’s VetoViolence website.