title: Before and after the trauma bay: the prevention of violent injury among youth.
abstract: Despite a decline in the incidence of homicide in recent years, the United States retains the highest youth homicide rate among the 26 wealthiest nations. Homicide is the second leading cause of death overall and the leading cause of death for male blacks aged 15 to 24 years. High rates of health care recidivism for violent injury, along with increasing research that demonstrates the effectiveness of violence prevention strategies in other arenas, dictate that physicians recognize violence as a complex preventable health problem and implement violence prevention activities into current practice rather than relegating violence prevention to the criminal justice arena. The emergency department (ED) and trauma center settings in many ways are uniquely positioned for this role. Exposure to firearm violence doubles the probability that a youth will commit violence within 2 years, and research shows that retaliatory injury risk among violent youth victims is 88 times higher than among those who were never exposed to violence. This article reviews the potential role of the ED in the prevention of youth violence, as well as the growing number of ED- and hospital-based violence prevention programs already in place.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine and the UM Injury Research Center, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5437, USA. stroh@umich.edu
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Knox
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fein
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Keri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Frisch
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walton
authors.forename: Rochelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dicker
authors.forename: Deane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Calhoun
authors.forename: Marla
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hargarten
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055815:Young Adult