Controlling Violence

Date issued
Jul 1999
This document is one of a series of technical notes that describe the nature and magnitude of violence in the region, its causes and effects, and how it can be prevented and controlled. The notes provide useful information on designing programs and policies to prevent and deal with violence. This note focuses on violence control and prevention. The authors hold that it is often thought that control and prevention are quite distinct actions and that consequently, it is simple to categorize actions under one heading or the other. The real world, however, is more gray than black and white. According to the authors, all actions designed to reduce violence form part of a continuum that ranges from prevention on one end of the scale to control on the other end.