Feature Story: Public Health Approach Used to Reduce Violence

Abstract

In her delivery of the 2013-14 Dr Gordon Wicijowski Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair in Police Studies Lecture, Karyn McCluskey, director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, will discuss how Scotland, at a time when it was highlighted by the UN peace monitor as being the most violent country in Europe, and Glasgow the most violent city, was able to bring the violence down to a 37 year low by starting to look at violence as a disease and implementing a public health approach to reduce violence. This public health campaign was driven primarily by police, but in the intervening decade has gathered professionals and communities across Scotland who are focussed on violence prevention.