Over the last two decades, there has been an outpouring of research by scholars on the causes and determinants of violence. While this work has expanded our knowledge, it has often dealt with symptoms rather than causes, interventions and penalties rather than prevention, and criminal violence rather than violence more generally. Furthermore, studies have usually been concerned with limited domains--for example, violence by strangers or family members of by adults or youth. Finally, research has tended to emphasize particular kinds of explanations of the level of violence (e.g., individual characteristics, situational attributes, cultural conditions, risks of penalties) or has focused on the social control functions of different institutions. While some studies have withstood reanalysis and replication, others have not. A need remains for theoretical and empirical integration and for the development of a cogent agenda for future research. With these goals at the fore, the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice is convening a Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violence. Over the next two years, with funding primarily from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice, an interdisciplinary Panel of distinguished scholars from a range of academic perspectives will review and synthesize knowledge about violent behavior and recommend directions for research that can advance knowledge and inform policy. The Panel will assemble data on patterns and trends, review theoretical and empirical research on causes and correlates, synthesize and critique research on violence, compare and contrast findings across disciplines, and offer guidance on core conceptual and methodological problems. This effort should lay the groundwork for more robust theory and empirical study that integrates biological, psychological, situational, and social factors. It is anticipated that this Panel will address theoretical, measurement, and methodological questions that lie at the frontiers of our understanding of violent behavior; identify critical gaps in knowledge; and orient, if not reorient, basic science on violence for the decade ahead.
