Behavioral Strategies for Constructing Nonviolent Cultures with Youth: A Review

Youth violence is widely recognized as a critical social issue in the United States, and many approaches to prevention have been developed in recent years. Emerging research suggests that only approaches that are deeply embedded in cultural, community, and organizational contexts are likely to be powerful enough to have a meaningful collective impact. No programs of this kind is truly practical and socially valid have yet reached a level where they can be regarded as well established, but data is beginning to appear that can guide community efforts. In this review, two classes of behavioral programming that appear promising as partial solutions to this need are identified: universal skills training and ecological strategies that focus on interlocking cultural practices. Progressive refinements in both are appearing through programs of developmental research. This paper reviews the state of the science in these efforts.