Violence Research Group

Violence is a leading global cause of death and serious injury of children, adolescents and young adults. The task of reducing violence is therefore not just for criminal justice agencies, but also for health and other public services.

Through research and evidence based advocacy the Violence Research Group has brought about policy change and practical action to reduce violence at local, national and international levels.  Since its establishment in 1996 the Group has and continues to:

• understand the causes and effects of violence and producing real-world applications to prevent it;
• evaluate violence prevention initiatives, working with service providers - health agencies, social services, criminal justice agencies, local government and third sector organisations;
• evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the psychological, social and economic impacts of violence; and
• translate effective innovations into local, national and international policy and practice.

The Group is led by clinical academics in partnership with scientists and draws on expertise from across Cardiff University. The strength and reputation of the group comes from its interdisciplinary research across the fields of psychiatry, public health, dentistry, criminal justice, police, psychology, materials science and economics; and its extensive record of innovation and contributions to policy and violence prevention. 

Group members have published findings in more than 400 papers in leading journals, lead national and international research networks and have embedded violence prevention into university and medical Royal College syllabuses. 

Achievements include:

• identifying previously unknown causes of violence, violence locations and weapons;
• the creation of the Cardiff Violence Prevention Group and the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, an innovation comprising the sharing by hospital emergency departments of anonymised information with police, city governments and other bodies to achieve violence reduction – a model that has been adopted across the UK, in the Netherlands, the United States and in the Western Cape region of South Africa;
• development of new rehabilitation programmes for victims and offenders;
• the genesis and co-development of the College of Policing, the Universities' Police Science Institute, the Probation Institute and co-authorship of the blueprint for the College of Teaching; and
• defining and developing evidence ecosystems across public services.

The Group collaborates with a range of external partners and organisations as well as the wider public. The Group's implementation partner, the WHO Cardiff Violence Prevention Group - a prototype safety partnership formed in 1996 - provides opportunities for prototype development, field trials, violence measurement and implementation of new evidence-based prevention interventions for the injured, victims, offenders and populations.

Research Impact

Implementation of the Cardiff Model of Violence Prevention is ongoing in the United States, the Netherlands and Australia, together with its implementation and codification in England. As a direct result of the violence research group's research and advocacy, the new Information Standard to Tackle Violence (ISTV; Information Standard ISB 1594) was first developed and implemented as a local standard with which NHS Trusts in England were obliged to comply and then, second, taken forward by the ONS Crime Statistics Advisory Committee as a new national standard.

The Have a Word programme (of motivational interviewing to reduce alcohol misuse) developed by the Violence Research arm of the Institute has been taken up across Wales, by Public Health England and the Armed Forces – specifically in Defence Dentistry clinics.

Violence Research Group findings and recommendations relating to the evidence ecosystem have been incorporated into UK government policy – especially resulting in the formation of six new What Works centres, the Cabinet Office What Works Council, the Police Knowledge Fund, the CO/ESRC Trials panel and the new Information Standard to Tackle Violence (ISTV; Information Standard ISB 1594).

People

Professor Jonathan Shepherd | Director, Associate Dean of Innovation, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Professor Simon C Moore | Professor in Public Health Research

Dr Vaseekaran Sivarajasingam | Reader

Professor Stephanie van Goozen | Professor

Dr Britt Hallingberg | Research Associate, Community Trials, DECIPHer

Professor David Marshall | Professor of Computer Vision

Professor Kent Matthews | Sir Julian Hodge Professor of Banking and Finance

Dr Peter Morgan | Reader in Quantitative Analysis

Dr Nicholas Page | Research student

Zaira Roked | Research student

Joseph Redfern | Research student

Dr Yu-Chiao Wang | Project Manager for ELAStiC and EDARA projects

Contact Us

+44 (0)29 2184 1822