Public Health & Crime Prevention: Shared Goals and Opportunities
Dr. Dr. SD Shanti
Prescriptions for Hope
This three-part presentation is a response to the recommendation of experts at the WHO meeting in Ottawa (2017) who called for “closer collaboration between the fields of public health and violence prevention”:
I. Brief overview of public health:
a. A field of professional practice, and a systematic way of solving problems; b. Five pillars – epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, health policy and behavioral science; and c. Social determinants of health
II. What public health offers crime prevention:
a. Framework for inter-disciplinary approaches to violence prevention; b. Methods of identifying and lowering risk factors and increasing protective factors for violence and crime; c. Research and theory-based road maps for changing behavior and social norms that give rise to violence and crime.
III. Possible scenarios of collaboration between the two fields:
a. Incorporating public health professionals to crime prevention programs; b. Partnering with public health professionals to advance crime prevention policies and growing community-wide coalitions to promote sustainability; and c. Creating dual-degree professionals with training in both public health and crime prevention, to promote long-term systems-level integration of the two fields (modeled after other Master’s in Public Health dual degree programs that are offered to medical and dental students).
I. Brief overview of public health:
a. A field of professional practice, and a systematic way of solving problems; b. Five pillars – epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, health policy and behavioral science; and c. Social determinants of health
II. What public health offers crime prevention:
a. Framework for inter-disciplinary approaches to violence prevention; b. Methods of identifying and lowering risk factors and increasing protective factors for violence and crime; c. Research and theory-based road maps for changing behavior and social norms that give rise to violence and crime.
III. Possible scenarios of collaboration between the two fields:
a. Incorporating public health professionals to crime prevention programs; b. Partnering with public health professionals to advance crime prevention policies and growing community-wide coalitions to promote sustainability; and c. Creating dual-degree professionals with training in both public health and crime prevention, to promote long-term systems-level integration of the two fields (modeled after other Master’s in Public Health dual degree programs that are offered to medical and dental students).
| Extract from the book (English, PDF) |
