Cardiff School of Dentistry

Violence & Society Research Group

 

Welcome! Watch an introduction to the group

 

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Recent News:

Violence in England and Wales: An Accident and Emergency Perspective (Sivarajasingam, et al.) can now be downloaded, including the most recent: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

The Universities Police Science Institute: a VRG spinout 

Shepherd JP (2013) The appliance of social science. Times Higher Education. 3 January 

Home Secretary announces national College of Policing which was first proposed by the Group in 2008 and commends pioneering Police Science Institute which was also initiated by the Group and opened by the Prince of Wales in 2007. Both these developments are designed by the Group to increase the generation and transfer of reliable knowledge on which policing should be based.

Prof Jonathan Shepherd's speech at the Institute for Government

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

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.)

• Simon Moore secures £815k of funding from NIHR PHR to lead the first national trial of an innovative violence reduction intervention based around licensed premises. The project includes a formal cost benefit analysis, process evaluation as well as being powered to determined effectiveness. This work develops an earlier Medical Research Council funded (£415k) feasibility study, also led by Simon, which was in turn developed from an earlier AERC funded scoping study.
• Simon Moore has secured funding from The European Research Advisory Board, who have sponsored an innovative feasibility study into the use of SMS text messaging to address alcohol-related harm.
• 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)
• The Home Office have recently funded (£125k) a new project: "Racist violence: an accident and emergency perspective".

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.