Violence, like all behavior, is fostered, developed, and enacted within a broad environmental, social, and individual context, as demonstrated in the chapters in this book. Because many factors in these contexts interact in complex ways to influence violent behavior, there is no simple or single effort that can solve the problem of violence among our youth in the United States. Therefore, policymakers need to consider a broad and coordinated set of policies if they hope to reduce violence. It is with such policies that this chapter is concerned.The APA Commission on Violence and Youth conducted a careful review of psychological research, heard testimony from experts in the field, and listened carefully to the young people who are actually living in the midst of violence. They reached a number of conclusions, many of which have important policy implications that are summarized here (specific policy recommendations issuing from these conclusions are detailed later in this chapter). First, although violence is a potential threat to all youth, some groups are more vulnerable than others to becoming involved in violence as perpetrators, victims, or bystanders (who may provide social support for violence). For example, those youth who are at highest risk because of their life circumstances are the socioeconomically disadvantaged ethnic and racial minority group members. However, too often the public has associated violent behavior with race or ethnicity rather than with the social and economic conditions that create the difficult life circumstances in which violence thrives. There are also groups who are particularly vulnerable to violence because of gender, sexual preference, religious beliefs, or physical condition. Prejudice and hostility toward individuals on the basis of such group membership can foster hate crimes and associated violence.Second, early childhood experiences play a pivotal role in the learning of violent behavior or effective nonviolent alternative behaviors. Physically aggressive young children who receive no systematic support for learning alternatives to violence may grow up to become violent teenagers and adults. Children are more apt to become aggressive and grow up to become involved in violence when they experience or witness violence and abuse in the home and

Psychologists have made major strides over the past 50 years in understanding the multiple etiologies of youth violence. As noted in many of the chapters in this book, violent and aggressive behavior in children and youth is an outgrowth of an array of historic, ecological, cultural, demographic, biological and psychological risk factors, many of which have been studied by psychologists as well as other scientists.In this regard, many of the chapters in this book have noted that violence is not randomly distributed throughout the population. For example, now, as in times past, both perpetrators and victims of violence are concentrated in low-income areas. However, the fact that only a small percentage of the children living in these environments engage in aggressive and violent behaviors emphasizes that there is still much to be learned about why some youth become violent and others do not.A synthesis of the research reviewed in this book demonstrates the multiple and varied processes that can thrust individual children on a developmental pathway or trajectory leading to violence. Although by no means inevitable, too often the trajectory suggested involves the following sequences.Economic and social disorganization in communities promotes family disequilibrium. Weak bonding to caretakers in infancy and ineffective parenting techniques including a lack of supervision, inconsistent discipline, and failure to reinforce positive, prosocial behavior in young children all have been shown to lead to subsequent poor peer relations and high levels of aggressiveness. Extremely aggressive young children tend to be rejected by many of their more conforming peers and perform poorly in school. Later, many of these highly aggressive youngsters have poor school attendance and numerous suspensions. Such peer-rejected children tend to establish relationships with others similar to themselves and enter into deviant peer groups. The more such children are exposed to violence in their homes, communities, and the media, the greater the risk for aggressive and violent behaviors. Although psychologists 435