Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Effectively engaging stakeholders and the public in developing violence prevention  
messages  
 
Version: 0 Date: 08 Apr 2016  
 
Reviewer: Stephanie Montesanti  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Thank you for this thought -provoking and well -written debate on an important topic. Below are 
some minor comments and questions for considerations.  
 
 
 
Page 5, Line 97 -98 the authors note "this complexity also means that efforts to coordinate 
prevention  require intersectoral, interjurisdictional and interprofessional collaboration." Can the 
authors elaborate on this and give examples where interprofessional or intersectoral collaboration 
has influenced the response to violence.  
 
 
 
Lines 92 -93 the authors talk about inequities and disparities in violence. This is a very important 
point. Inequities in violent acts exist across gender, age, ethnicity, and culture. How does this 
complicate our nations response to the violence (whether family or domestic, or in terpersonal 
violence)? For instance, Gender is a critical determinant of health, affecting a person's access to, 
and control over financial and physical resources, education and information and freedom of 
movement.  
 
 
 
What does a public health response to v iolence entail? The authors elude to the social 
determinants of health, but I think more can be said on this. Policies and interventions to prevent 
and address incidences of interpersonal violence, need to understand the "causes of the causes" 
of violence.   
 
 
 
A recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated the effective of a 
university -based sexual assault resistance program in Canada 
(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1411131 ) 
 
 
In the discussion of the policy response, what 's missing from this discussion is an understanding 
of structural inequities embedded in societies. Violence is marked by unequal access to the social 
determinants of health (e.g., housing, good quality health care, and unemployment), which then 
create con ditions where violence can happen.  
 
 
 
For the second component involved in engaging stakeholders and the public: identifying and 
using, as appropriate, lessons from campaigns  that show evidence of reducing specific types of 
violence; the authors also note th at there inconclusive or limited evaluative evidence to support 
that existing campaigns have been effective in reducing violence.  Are there any examples of in 
Canada and globally of campaign or communication strategies that have been effective? How 
can st akeholders and the public make sense of the evidence? What do the authors think explains 
the mismatch between the evidence supporting explanations of violence from a social 
determinants of health lens (see Montesanti & Thurston, 2015) and interventions and  policy 
responses that continue to focus on individual determinants of violence.  
 
 
 
 
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Does the work inclu de the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
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