Violence Prevention: A Vision of Hope: Final Report

In May of 1994, California Attorney General Daniel E. Lungren appointed a Policy Council on Violence Prevention and charged the Council with studying violence in California and recommending policies and strategies for reversing the pervasive culture of violence in our society. The Council was a diverse, multidisciplinary group representing criminal justice, health, education, business, family violence, parents, youth-serving organizations, media, research, religious and community-action groups, and state agencies. Council members purposely decided to look at violence from a wide and inclusive viewpoint. The nature of their work, therefore, was deliberately designed to cast a broad net so as to gain a comprehensive perspective on the issue. In keeping with this outlook, the Council adopted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition of violence as the threatened or actual use of force or power against another person, against oneself, or against a group or community that either results in, or has a likelihood of resulting in, injury, death or deprivation. To broaden its perspective and information base further, the Council conducted public hearings in five cities across California to receive expert and public testimony on the prevention of violence