U.S.A. The Problem Violence now threatens us as individuals and as families, while it tears at the fabric of our social order. Violence has become of epidemic proportions and is now representing a public health threat of worldwide magnitude.
Violence appears to be spreading from, and within, every segment of our human existence.
Violence seems now to have characteristics of a contagious disease, as it involves individual after individual, group after group, and culture after culture. Its virulence stands undaunted thus far, after a modest beginning of efforts at prevention, correction, treatment and control have been undertaken in a random manner by various societal elements. There have been some excellent studies of violence and some outstanding research projects of the causes and contributing factors. Likewise, some rewarding projects have contributed to our knowledge about prevention, avoidance and correction. For the most part, however, these have focused on specific categories of individuals, certain type groups, or identified similar cultural and social phenomena.