Past Research

Past Research Projects

Blueprints Dissemination (1998-1999)
With funding from the Metropolitan Life Foundation CSPV initiated a broad-based national dissemination effort for the Blueprints series. The dissemination effort included traditional marketing and communication avenues such as mass mailings and public service announcements. A video tape was developed that is a composite of highlights from the first ten Blueprints programs (more about video >>). CSPV also developed the Blueprints web site. The web site complements the information provided on the video and can be useful at any stage of violence prevention planning. Additionally, the web site provides detailed information on each of the Blueprints Model and Promising programs. The web site also provides a query system to help users identify appropriate violence prevention programs that match specific community needs.

Comprehensive Evaluation Plan (1997-2001)
This project, funded by a grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Community Partnership Office, resulted in a comprehensive evaluation plan that specifies evaluation objectives, procedures and standards from crime and violence prevention programs. The plan also provides a basis for establishing a collaborative and supportive environment with clear goals and expectations that will assist programs in operating more effectively.

A longitudinal evaluation assessed the impact of Youth Crime Prevention and Intervention (YCPI) programs on rates of crime, violence and substance abuse in communities throughout Colorado. These evaluations provided feedback to the programs to facilitated program effectiveness.

Domestic Violence Project (1997-2000)
 In conjunction with the Colorado Office of Probation Services, CSPV evaluated the reliability and validity of measures of the risk of repeated domestic violence obtained at the time of sentencing. A validated instrument to predict risk of subsequent domestic violence among offenders will be developed by Probation Services to determine future treatment. Probation and court officers throughout the state of Colorado will use this instrument. By providing judges and probation officers a means to employ more reliable and valid information about future risks of domestic violence offenders, the project ultimately will help develop policies and treatment that protect victims from further incidents of domestic violence and increase public safety.

Lethal and Non-Lethal Adolescent Violence (1996-2000)
This research project was funded through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and was conducted by CSPV in collaboration with the School of Public Health at Columbia University. An analysis of the data file from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report was conducted to identify the contributing risk to adolescent violence. This study tested a model of urban social isolation and structural change on adolescent homicide and violence rates.

Violence Prevention Initiative (1995-2000)
CSPV received funding from the Colorado Trust to provide technical assistance to grantees in the Colorado Trust’s Violence Prevention Initiative. Originally, the Colorado Trust provided grant funds to more than 20 organizations throughout the state of Colorado to plan and/or implement violence prevention programs. CSPV provides individualized assistance to the grantees in the areas of program planning, implementation and evaluation.

Violence in American Schools (1994-1998)
The W.T. Grant Foundation funded a Center volume titled, Violence in American Schools: A New Perspective. CSPV identified nationally know experts to write state-of-the-art critical chapters of research on selected topics. The targeted audience for this volume includes educators and school administrators, violence prevention practitioners, health and human service professionals, policy makers, and researchers. The goal of the compiled work was to review the knowledge base and identify areas in need of further research. Moreover, the work draws out the implications for violence policy and intervention strategies based upon what is know about violence and schools. The edited volume was published by Cambridge University Press in 1998.

Youth Handgun Violence Prevention Project (1995-2002)
The Youth Handgun Violence Prevention Project began in response to concerns about a growing problem of youth with handguns in local programs and neighborhoods. The concerns came from grantees participating in the Youth Violence Initiative that began in 1995 funded by The Colorado Trust. In 1997 The Colorado Trust funded CSPV to examine the following: 1) document the nature and extent of youth handgun violence in Colorado and nationally, 2) determine what youth and adults in Colorado think about the handgun problem and its possible solutions, and 3) identify effective programs to prevent youth handgun violence. The study found that firearms in the hands of youth threaten the health and well-being of Colorado residents, particularly the youth in Colorado. Youth and adults in Colorado communities confirmed increasing prevalence and use of handguns by youth in their communities as well as widespread accessibility to handguns. Youth felt that there was little that could be done to prevent or reduce youth handgun violence, however adults were optimistic that the problem could be addressed with a concerted effort. Surprisingly, the study found widespread efforts to reduce youth handgun violence, however few had been evaluated with any rigor.

As a result, The Colorado Trust decided to fund a pilot project, The Youth Handgun Violence Prevention Project, to design, implement, and evaluate three programs aimed at reducing youth handgun violence. In 1999, three violence prevention programs were selected to join The Colorado Trust and CSPV in this endeavor: The Conflict Center, Project PAVE, and Catholic Charities. The Conflict Center added a gun violence prevention component to its school based 25-week conflict resolution curriculum. Inner city schools were selected to receive The Conflict Center curriculum. Project PAVE created a six-week gun violence prevention curriculum to be administered in a small group setting within its counseling program. Youth receiving the Leaders for Life group have been adjudicated and referred on a gun violation. Catholic Charities added a six-week gun violence curriculum to its existing life skills group. First time, low level offenders from the inner city receive the Catholic Charities gun violence curriculum.

The programs developed their gun violence prevention components based on a review of the research on youth handgun violence and its know risk factors. All three programs target adolescent males from the inner city, although females were not excluded. Risk factors include exposure to violence, lack of knowledge of the legal consequences for using a handgun, lack of self-control, low self-efficacy, and aggression. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the gun violence prevention efforts. Results of the evaluation are available in:

Williams, K.W., & Mattson, S.A. (2006, Summer). Qualitative lessons from a community-based violence prevention project with null findings. New Directions for Evaluation, 110, 5-17.

Book: Violence in American Schools

In this volume, experts from a range of disciplines use a variety of perspectives, notably those of public health, criminology, ecology, and developmental psychology, to review the latest research on the causes of youth violence in the nation's schools and communities and on school-based interventions that have prevented or reduced it. They describe and evaluate strategies for the prevention and treatment of violence that go beyond punishment and incarceration. The volume offers a new strategy for the problem of youth violence, arguing that the most effective interventions use a comprehensive, multi disciplinary approach and take into account differences in stages of individual development and involvement in overlapping social contexts, families, peer groups, schools, and neighborhoods. This book can be used profitably by school teachers and administrators.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Violence in American Schools: An Overview, Delbert S. Elliott, Beatrix Hamburg, & Kirk R. Williams
  2. Youth Violence is a Public Health Concern, Margaret A. Hamburg
  3. Social Contexts and Functions of Adolescent Violence, Jeffrey Fagan & Deanna L. Wilkinson
  4. Juvenile Aggression at Home and at School, Rolf Loeber & Magda Stouthamer-Loeber
  5. The Interdependence of School Violence with Neighborhood and Family Conditions, John H. Laub & Janet L. Lauritsen
  6. Preventing Firearm Violence in and around Schools, James A. Mercy & Mark L. Rosenberg
  7. Reducing Violence through the Schools, J. David Hawkins, David P. Farrington, & Richard F. Catalano
  8. Evaluation of School-Based Violence Prevention Programs , Faith Samples & Larry Aber
  9. Safe School Planning, Ronald D. Stephens
  10. Exposure to Urban Violence: Contamination of the School Environment, Raymond P. Lorion
  11. Community Policing, Schools, and Mental Health: the Challenge of Collaboration, Steven Marans & Mark Schaefer
  12. Tailoring Established After-School Programs to Meet Urban Realities, Marcia R. Chaiken
  13. An Integrated Approach to Violence Prevention, Delbert S. Elliott, Kirk R. Williams, & Beatrix Hamburg

For information on obtaining, copies of this or any Cambridge University Press publication, please visit the Cambridge University Press web site.

The Colorado Trust: Youths and Guns

The Youth Handgun Violence Prevention Project began in response to concerns about a growing problem of youth with handguns in local programs and neighborhoods. The concerns came from grantees participating in the Youth Violence Initiative that began in 1995 funded by The Colorado Trust. In 1997 The Colorado Trust funded CSPV to examine the following: 1) document the nature and extent of youth handgun violence in Colorado and nationally, 2) determine what youth and adults in Colorado think about the handgun problem and its possible solutions, and 3) identify effective programs to prevent youth handgun violence. The study found that firearms in the hands of youth threaten the health and well-being of Colorado residents, particularly the youth in Colorado. Youth and adults in Colorado communities confirmed increasing prevalence and use of handguns by youth in their communities as well as widespread accessibility to handguns. Youth felt that there was little that could be done to prevent or reduce youth handgun violence, however adults were optimistic that the problem could be addressed with a concerted effort. Surprisingly, the study found widespread efforts to reduce youth handgun violence, however few had been evaluated with any rigor.

As a result, The Colorado Trust decided to fund a pilot project, The Youth Handgun Violence Prevention Project, to design, implement, and evaluate three programs aimed at reducing youth handgun violence. In 1999, three violence prevention programs were selected to join The Colorado Trust and CSPV in this endeavor: The Conflict Center, Project PAVE, and Catholic Charities. The Conflict Center added a gun violence prevention component to its school based 25-week conflict resolution curriculum. Inner city schools were selected to receive The Conflict Center curriculum. Project PAVE created a six-week gun violence prevention curriculum to be administered in a small group setting within its counseling program. Youth receiving the Leaders for Life group have been adjudicated and referred on a gun violation. Catholic Charities added a six-week gun violence curriculum to its existing life skills group. First time, low level offenders from the inner city receive the Catholic Charities gun violence curriculum.

The programs developed their gun violence prevention components based on a review of the research on youth handgun violence and its know risk factors. All three programs target adolescent males from the inner city, although females were not excluded. Risk factors include exposure to violence, lack of knowledge of the legal consequences for using a handgun, lack of self-control, low self-efficacy, and aggression. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the gun violence prevention efforts. The three-year pilot project is now in the final stages collecting the remaining post-tests from youth participating in the programs. Results of the evaluation will be available in the near future.