Cardiff School of Dentistry

Violence & Society Research Group

Recent News:

April 2011: Prof Jonathan Shepherd's speech at the Institute for Government

April 2011: Violence in England and Wales: An Accident and Emergency Perspective (Sivarajasingam, et al.) can now be downloaded, including the most recent: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

November 2010: Jonathan Shepherd gives evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on Elected Police Commissioners.

August 2010: Jonathan Shepherd writes for the Times 

September 2010: Tackling Alcohol Misuse Through Screening & Brief Interventions in Hospital Trauma Clinics: A Knowledge Transfer Partnership [pdf]

Key findings, achievements and areas of work

Oro-facial injury is one of the most frequently inflicted and debilitating consequences of inter-personal violence. The inter-disciplinary Violence Research Group (VRG) has played a major role in the UK and internationally in epidemiology, management and prevention of violence

(Details on funding are shown in brackets.)

• Evaluations have demonstrated the effectiveness of integrated violence prevention, by police, healthcare professionals and local councils (£495K UK Home Office). Reflecting the Group's finding that many violent offenses which lead to hospital treatment are not known to the police, the Group initiated what has become known as the "Cardiff Model" for violence prevention which depends on the collection of data in A&Es about the precise location and weapons involved. These data, together with the contributions of A&E and maxillofacial NHS consultants in local partnerships have, the Group has found, enhanced prevention above the levels achievable without these ingredients.
• From the National Violence Surveillance Network which the group established in 2000, data have clarified national trends in violence according to A&E data collected from a structured sample of 60 A&Es. This new surveillance system has demonstrated successive annual decreases from 200 to 2007, and increase in assault injury in children aged under 10 years in 2007 and an overall increase in England and Wales of 6% in 2008.
• Evaluation of urban centre closed-circuit television using police and A&E data; demonstrating that increased surveillance and targeted policing of violence “hot spots” reduces physical harm. (Crime in England and Wales 2004/2005. HO Statistical Bulletin. London: HMSO,2005; ISSN 1358-510X: 72);
• Research into the relationship between psychosis and serious violent offending, identifying who is most vulnerable and the impact of symptoms;
• Design and validation, using randomised controlled trials, of a new care pathway for victims of violence, incorporating: A&E-derived data in primary violence prevention (£96K WORD), evaluation of intervention to reduce alcohol misuse (£105K AERC) and cognitive behavioural therapy to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (£77K WORD)
• Understanding the causes of violence in youngsters using experimental and psychological methods (£260k ESRC) and the relationship between violence and substance misuse (£50k AERC). The ESRC are further sponsoring an entry for their 2008 Festival of Science. Moreover, we have recently been awarded £415k from the MRC to conduct research into alcohol related city centre violence.
• The Home Office have recently funded (£125k) a new project: "Racist violence: an accident and emergency perspective".

Community violence has its roots in child development, personality, the environment and culture.

Community violence is a major problem in all societies and has its roots in child development, personality, the environment and culture. Reducing it is a task not just for criminal justice agencies but for health and other public services. The Violence Research Group was founded in 1991 in what was then the University of Wales College of Medicine, now Cardiff University. Around 85% of 3,500 victims of violent crime treated each year at the University Hospital of Wales have injuries of the teeth, mouth, jaws and face reflecting the anatomical target for blows in assault nationally and around the world. In the great tradition of medical and dental schools, the group is led by clinical academics in partnership with scientists: colleagues in the Cardiff University psychology and business schools. An early finding from which much subsequent work has developed is that a substantial proportion - even a majority of some categories of violent offences - which result in NHS treatment do not appear in police records. The vitality and international reputation of the group comes from its interdisciplinary research across medicine, public health, dentistry, criminal justice, police, psychology and economics. Its implementation partner, the WHO Violent Crime Task Group of the Cardiff Community Safety Partnership provides opportunities for field trials, violence measurement and implementation of evidence-based prevention and interventions to help victims.

International Activities

• Jon Bisson is President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, established in 1993, this is the European network for professionals in the field of psychotraumatology. The European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies seeks to ensure continued prominence is given to all aspects of traumatic stress and its many repercussions and promotes networking between individuals and organisations within the field of psychotraumatology.
• Pamela Taylor leads the Offender Health Research Network. It's over-arching aim is to improve research and development conducted in offender management settings. The work falls mainly into five areas: public health, primary care, mental health, dentistry and substance misuse. However, work also addresses wider issues across the criminal justice pathway, for example alternatives to custody, resettlement, social care, housing and family ties.
• Pamela Taylor (PJT) leads the forensic psychiatry group, which hosts national and international research networks:
  • The Offender Health Research Network-Cymru (OHRN-C), which brings together criminal justice and health service agencies throughout Wales and Bristol to support research into the health of offenders (chair PJT)
  • Pathways from psychosis to serious violence group, an all Wales group within the Mental Health Research Network-Cymru (MHRN-C) to develop research into how some people with psychosis become violent (chair PJT)
  • An international research network: SWANZDSAJCS, which joins nine countries (Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, South Africa, Japan, Canada, and Scotland) on five continents to learn about our similarities and differences in demographic, legal and clinical services in the field and the impact of these on research outcomes internationally and to promote research collaboration (co-chairs PJT and Per Lindqvist, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm).
  • A UK and Ireland research group in conjunction with the University of Kent and the Salvation Army (co-chairs Marianne van den Bree, Cardiff University and Adrian Bonner, University of Kent).
• The VSRG is also an active collaborator within the World Health Organisation's Violence Prevention Alliance, an Alliance that spans over eleven countries and involves over 38 organisations worldwide.

Aims

• To maintain a high quality multidisciplinary research programme to further understanding of the causes of violence.
• To implement research findings to improve violence prevention, services for the injured, health promotion, social policy in relation to problems of substance abuse, and drug and alcohol treatment programmes.
• To evaluate violence prevention initiatives, particularly those which involve health services in multi-agency partnerships with social services, criminal justice agencies, local government and the voluntary sector.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the psychological and social impact of violence.

News

Violence in England and Wales 2008 An Accident and Emergency Perspective report published 00:01 22 April 2009 [pdf] - previous reports for 2007 and 2006 are also available. Overall in England and Wales there has been a 24% reduction in people seeking A&E treatment after assaults since 2001. This equates to around 90,000 fewer assaults leading to hospital treatment per year by 2008. 

The VRG has been instrumental in the development of the Universities Police Science Institute, a tripartite collaboration between Cardiff University, Glamorgan University and South Wales Police. The idea came directly from the Group's research which found substantial differences between the extent to which medicine and policing are founded on reliable evidence of effectiveness. The Chief Constable of South Wales Police announced this international first in Cardiff on November 8. Strategy and Implementation Groups are taking the Institute forward in concert with the devolution of police training to Forces from the national police training agency, Centrex.

Recent reports have featured the work of the Violence Research Group including one by the National Audit Office on violent crime [pdf] and the Group has additionally produced policy documents for the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP on violence prevention [pdf].

Recent Media Interest

• BBC reports on findings from the V&SRG's National Violence Surveillance Network
• New Scientist and Science report on V&SRG research into crowd related violence
• BBC reports on V&SRG research into violence against children
• BBC reports on research on alcohol-related harm
• BBC reports on V&SRG research showing links between the price of beer and violence