Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Violence is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Drawing on the \ndisciplines of Political Science and Public Health the purpose of this study is to \nunderstand the conditions that determine political traction for the issue of violence \nand facilitate the adoption of a strategy of prevention. Using multiple-case study \nmethodology, it draws on data collected from 42 in-depth semi-structured \ninterviews, eight weeks of direct observations and more than 200 pieces of \ndocumentary evidence to examine violence prevention policy development in the \nWestern Cape Province of South Africa, Jamaica and the Republic of Lithuania. \nThe Shiffman Public Health Policy Priority Framework is applied to identify the \nfactors that influenced the advancement of violence prevention policy in each case \nand to draw cross-case comparisons. The employment of this public health specific \nframework in the field of violence prevention allows the study to reach conclusions \nas to the utility of this framework for broader public health policy analysis and to \nproffer some refinements. \nFurther findings suggest that bringing together academics, advocates and policy- \nmakers into networks, focused on a shared concept of violence, gains political \ntraction for the issue of violence and a strategy of prevention. It is found that the \nconceptualisation of violence and perception of prevention are framed in a case \nspecific historical context and that an examination of this context is necessary to \nunderstand the conditions that shape the status of violence prevention policy. \nThe results suggest that the development of violence prevention policy in other \ncountries would be expedited by the coalescing and informed engagement of the \nviolence prevention policy community in the web of institutions, interests and ideas \nthat underpin the public health policy process.
Author: Alison Gehring
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1488327218