The primary prevention of violence committed by an intimate partner or family member of the victim is particularly difficult, although this type of violence has been increasing in the United States. There is a critical need to identify interventions capable of preventing violence within families and relationships earlier in the life course, as family violence often begins in childhood. The overall objectives of this proposed project are to characterize the biological, behavioral, and social processes across the life course that contribute to violence within social networks and to test alternate strategies for preventing violence. We plan to meet these objectives by pursuing three specific aims: (1) Identify the biological, behavioral, and social processes that contribute to violence transmission within family, intimate partner, and acquaintance networks at different stages of the life course; (2) Estimate the reduction in non-fatal and fatal violent assaults that would result from interventions among specific subgroups at particular stages of the life course; and (3) Involve undergraduate and graduate students in research and improve research capacity at the University at Albany.
These aims will be achieved through the expansion of an existing agent-based model that utilizes data from multiple longitudinal studies and replicates observed social network patterns of violence. This model will be used to generate and analyze data reflecting the complex pathways leading to the occurrence of violence across the lifespan and across multiple generations, and as a ?virtual laboratory? to estimate reductions in violence under different interventions. The project will involve undergraduate and graduate students in novel research into the origins of violence within social networks and will produce a sustained enhancement of the research environment at the University at Albany. The approach is innovative because it offers a comprehensive investigation of the within- and between-individual determinants of violence within social networks, including the biological processes through which exposure to violence ?gets under the skin?. The approach is significant because it is expected to substantially advance understanding of how biological, behavioral, and social processes give rise to violence and the optimal intervention strategies and timing to prevent violence within relationships. Ultimately, these advances will facilitate the design and implementation of interventions aimed at the primary prevention of violence within families and other relationships across the life course in diverse populations.
The proposed research is relevant to public health because increased understanding of the biological, behavioral, and social processes that give rise to violence within social networks at different developmental stages will inform violence prevention efforts, including primary prevention of family and intimate partner violence. The proposed model of violence within social networks can be adapted to different settings, including different urban areas, to gain insight into the relative benefits of different violence intervention strategies and timing.
