Session Speakers

Download the Policy Idea Papers of the Session Lectures

Session Speakers

Session 1 - Creating and Using the Global Evidence Base for Violence Reduction

Chair: Peter Donnelly - University of St. Andrews, Professor of Public Health and Medicine at the School of Medicine

Without high quality data the aim of reducing violence significantly in the next 30 years stands little chance of being achieved. This includes data on its scale, distribution, and consequences; risk and protective factors for different types of violence and their causal status; what works to prevent and respond to it and how to scale up what works; and on the costs and cost-effectiveness of effective measures. Speakers in this session will present ways to generate, disseminate, and apply evidence, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, that can help to reduce violence.

Session 2 - Building Violence Prevention Research Capacity

Chair: Patricia Lannen - UBS Optimus Foundation, Programme Director of Child Protection

Evidence-based violence reduction requires an adequate in-country research capacity, to generate the necessary evidence and then to apply it effectively. Speakers in this session will examine the extent to which risk factors for violence differ between cultures, how national information systems can be used to address violence more effectively, and what strategies are needed to overcome obstacles to translating evidence-based principles into policy.

Session 3 - Reducing Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents

Chair: Harriet MacMillan - McMaster University, Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Behavioural Neurosciences and Pediatrics, Chedoke Health Chair in Child Psychiatry 

Recent large-scale epidemiological studies have shown that, contrary to what was believed until recently, rates of sexual abuse of girls – and boys – are higher in many low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Speakers in this session will examine major strategies to address the issue in two different regions of the world – in Arab societies and in East Africa. They will also focus on human trafficking, a form of abuse which is particularly difficult to research.

Session 4 - Reducing Violence in Public Space

Chair: Mark Bellis - Liverpool John Moores University - Centre for Public Health, Director of Policy, Research and Development

Streets, squares and meeting places that are free from the threat of violence are an important precondition for civil society. Strategies to reduce violence in public space, often committed by gangs and associated with illegal markets, are therefore a pivotal component of broader violence reduction. The speakers in this session show what we know about effective approaches to reduce violence in public space. They also present research-based ideas about innovative ways for violence reduction in communities and making the best use of new technologies for violence reduction.

Session 5 - Promoting Good Governance and Civil Society

Chair: Baroness Vivien Stern - Co-Chair, Know Violence

Societies with high levels of individual violence are often characterized by situations with a poor functioning of the state, a lacking civil society, and no effective rule of law. Speakers in this session examine how the functioning of state institutions can be strengthened, what practical steps can be taken to promote the rule of law, and how citizen's active support for violence prevention can be promoted.

Session 6 – Reducing Organised Forms of Violence

Chair: John Lawrence Aber - New York University, Professor of Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Violence is highly concentrated globally, nationally, and locally. In violence hot spots effective strategies usually must address forms of organized violence committed in groups as well as the side effects of poor governance such as police corruption. The speakers of this session will identify the global hot spots of violence and the specific challenges to intervening in these areas. They will also present specific approaches that have been found to be effective in some areas of the world.

Session 7 - Global Actors: International Organisations and Private Philanthropy

Chair: Simon Sommer - Jacobs Foundation, Head of Research 

Violence is prevented by taking concrete measures within countries, often at sub-national or municipal level. However, international actors can also make an important contribution to violence prevention, directly, by providing funding, policy advice, or operational assistance to countries; and indirectly, by providing global "public goods" for violence prevention – such as international treaties and resolutions, scientific knowledge and databases, and capacity development tools – which can then be applied by national and sub-national actors. In this session, the contribution of international organizations and private philanthropy to reducing violence by 50% in the next 30 years will be spelled out.

Session 8 - Scaling Up Interventions and Building Evidence-based Support Systems

Chair: Nancy Guerra - University of Delaware, Director of the Institute for Global Studies 

Scaling up evidence-based violence prevention interventions faces formidable challenges, challenges that go some way to explaining why so few such interventions have been implemented across whole populations. Speakers in Session 8, who will focus on preventing violence against children, will discuss some of these challenges – such as the cross-cultural transportability of interventions – and present case studies of efforts to scale up intervention with high-risk populations in South Africa and in conflict-affected countries.

Session 9 - Reducing Intimate Partner Violence Against Women

Chair: Charlotte Watts - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sigrid Rausing Professor, Director of the Gender, Violence and Health Centre

Recent prevalence estimates show that between 25% (in Europe and the Western Pacific) and 37% (Africa and South and South East Asia) of women experience physical and/or sexual violence by a partner during their lifetime. While the issue has long received considerable attention from advocates in many parts of the world, there are still few effective interventions to prevent and respond to this form of violence, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Speakers in this session will highlight what is being done to strengthen the evidence-base and present a case study of efforts to address violence against women in India.

Session 10 - Controlling Triggers to Violence 

Chair: Richard Matzopoulos - Medical Research Council of South Africa, Specialist Scientist at the Burden of Disease Research Unit; University of Cape Town, Honorary Research Associate at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine 

An important element of violence reduction is the control over situational mechanisms associated with violence. This includes more effective control over drugs, alcohol, and access to firearms, but also the application of crime science to improve the surveillance of violence hotspots, giving victims more effective access to support, and increasing the chances that perpetrators are caught. In this session speakers will address how security-enhancing technologies and control over firearms, alcohol and drugs can contribute to the decline in violence.

Session 11 - Reforming Police Forces and Making Them Better Serve Their People

Chair: Peter Neyroud - University of Cambridge, Affiliated Lecturer at the Institute of Criminology

Especially in societies with high levels of crime and violence police forces across the world are frequently insufficiently trained, unable to effectively enforce the law, and exposed to corruption. As a result they often lack the support of the populations they are meant to serve.  However, an effective, accountable and legitimate police force is an essential component of violence reductions strategies. In this session three experts in police research discuss strategies that can help to make police forces more accountable and that can improve police effectiveness.

Session 12 - What Penal Policy for Less Violent Societies?

Chair: Christof Heyns - United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions 

Criminal justice policies are an integral part of violence reduction strategies. This session examines the ways in which penal policies can support the goal of violence reduction. Issues addressed here include whether increased imprisonment is a viable option, what lessons can be learned from failed past penal policies, and whether changing legislation on drugs or firearms can produce violence-reducing effects.