Students living in low SES areas are exposed to higher rates of school suspension, at similar levels of adjustment problems. Assisting schools, particularly those with disadvantaged students, to foster school engagement is essential for schools committed to health promotion.

Pathways to Prevention is a developmental prevention project focused on the transition to school in a disadvantaged multicultural urban area in Queensland. The project incorporates two elements: The Preschool Intervention Program (PIP) promotes communication and social skills related to school success; and the Family Independence Program (FIP) (parent training, facilitated playgroups, support groups, etc) promotes family capacity to foster child development. Using a quasi-experimental design (N ¼ 597), improvements in boys' but not girls' behaviours over the preschool year were found. FIP reached more than a quarter of the target population, including many difficult-to-reach families experiencing high stress. Case studies and other qualitative data suggest positive outcomes.

This research was funded from an ARC research grant to Ross Homel, Gordon Elias and Ian Hay as the chief investigators with Mission Australia as the industry partner. The cooperation of Education Queensland is acknowledged, particularly that of Carmel Prothero and Ruth Ernst, the two developmental language teachers involved with this project.

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Do governments take the measures that are supported by the best scientific evidence available? We present a brief review of the situation in: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our findings show surprisingly similar developments across countries. While all seven countries are moving towards evidence-based decision making regarding policies and programs to prevent violence, there remain a number of difficulties before this end can be achieved. For Eur J Crim Policy Res (