Violence is a significant public health problem that has profound impacts on lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being. Violence is defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.”
Health Impacts of Violence
- Experiencing violence can cause physical injuries, death, and long-term health problems, including both physical and mental health conditions.
- Research shows that witnessing violence can negatively impact mental health and is linked to higher rates of future firearm injury.
- Firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death among children and young people aged 1-19 years.
- The economic cost of youth violence in the United States is estimated to be $122 billion.
NIH’s Role in Violence Prevention Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports scientific research to increase our understanding of public health interventions to prevent different forms of violence and the trauma, injuries, and mortality resulting from them.
OBSSR leads efforts to coordinate interdisciplinary research across NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). These efforts include priorities and initiatives focused on:
- Child or elder maltreatment
- Youth violence and bullying
- Online harassment and abuse
- Community violence
- Intimate partner violence
- Sexual violence
Firearm Mortality and Injury Prevention Research
Since 2020, Congress has appropriated $12.5 million dollars of annual funding for NIH to conduct research on firearm injury and mortality prevention, studying the underlying causes and evidence-based methods of prevention, including crime prevention.
The research must be:
- Free from ideological or political bias: Funds cannot be used to advocate for or promote gun control.
- Transparent: Grantees must meet NIH requirements for open data, open code, research pre-registration, and open access to research articles.
For more information about NIH spending amounts for firearm and violence research, visit the Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition, and Disease Categories (RCDC). The firearm RCDC data are available starting from FY2020.
Firearm-Focused Research Projects
OBSSR, in collaboration with other NIH ICOs, has developed a series of funding opportunities building on existing NIH research and identifying emerging opportunities.
FY2020 and FY2021
NIH released a series of Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) (PAR-20-143, NOT-OD-20-089, PAR-21-191, and PAR-21-192), which took a broad public health approach to firearm injury and mortality prevention.
These initiatives encouraged research on interventions delivered in health care and community settings and the integration of individual, family, interpersonal, community, and structural or system (e.g., legal, child welfare) approaches. The focus included victimization and perpetration of firearm violence across populations and life stages.
FY2022
NIH launched two new funding opportunities (PAR 22-115 and PAR 22-120) establishing what became the Community Firearm Violence Prevention Network (CFVP). This research network was designed to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions preventing firearm injury. A Coordinating Center was also created to enhance communication, data analysis, engagement, and the dissemination of findings.
In July 2022, NIH released a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) (NOT-OD-22-167) to promote research on violence-related health outcomes and the integration of violence screening and interventions in health care settings.
FY2023
In 2023, NIH published a NOFO (PAR-23-066), a re-issue of PAR-22-115, extending the research network and adding additional sites.
Recognizing the need for skilled researchers in firearm injury prevention, NIH issued two NOFOs (PAR-23-107 and PAR-23-108) to provide advanced training and career development support. These awards were a critical first step toward expanding the field of qualified researchers and building capacity for the future.
Additionally, NIH issued another NOSI (NOT-OD-23-039) to enhance the understanding of firearm injury risk factors, improve intervention strategies, and optimize the implementation of evidence-based prevention methods.
FY2024
NIH issued career enhancement awards (PAR-24-070) to help experienced investigators expand or redirect their research into firearm mortality and injury prevention. These awards provided crucial training, enabling researchers to acquire the expertise necessary for conducting firearm-related research.
In 2024, the first three CFVP network sites (PAR-22-115) successfully met their rigorous science milestones and transitioned from the intervention planning phase to testing community-level interventions aimed at reducing firearm injury and mortality.
Violence Research Initiatives
NIH Working Groups
NIH-wide Violence Research Workgroup
Established in 2019 by OBSSR and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, this workgroup examines the current violence research portfolio across NIH, identifying gaps, opportunities for current research priorities, and future directions. More details about the working group efforts and NIH-supported violence research are available in this Translational Behavioral Medicine article.
Mechanisms of Aggressive Behavior Workgroup
A subgroup of the Violence Research workgroup, this workgroup identifies future research directions on the mechanisms of aggressive behavior. In December 2022, the group issued a Request for Information (NOT-OD-22-041) to gather community input on biobehavioral mechanisms of aggression and received 27 responses that have contributed to workgroup priorities.
Additionally, to identify key challenges, OBSSR hosted the “Advancing the Science of Aggression Across Species and Disciplines” workshop in June 2023, bringing together experts to discuss gaps, opportunities, and next steps in aggression research.
Federal Initiatives
Since 2022, OBSSR has engaged with several White House and federal partners to address all forms of violence, including initiatives to combat gun violence as well as online harassment and abuse. NIH participation ensures that lessons learned from NIH grantees’ research are integrated into ongoing efforts across the federal government.
Additional Resources
Research Highlights
OBSSR creates research highlights focused on behavioral and social sciences funded by NIH. Highlights on NIH-funded violence research initiatives have included:
- Preventing revictimization among recent survivors of sexual violence
- Some young adult males living in certain major U.S. cities face a higher risk of firearm death than military deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Homicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S.
- Reported domestic violence crimes decreased in Chicago during the 2020 COVID-19 stay-at-home order but may not reflect true levels of violence
- Mental illness may not be a factor in most mass shootings
- Violence exposure in childhood impacts brain network connectivity into adolescence
- Evaluating the risk of school violence using natural language processing and machine learning
Events
OBSSR organizes meetings to showcase behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR). Below are links to events OBSSR has hosted on violence research.
- Understanding and Addressing the Health Impacts of Online Abuse and Harassment Workshop
- Advancing the Science of Aggression Across Species and Disciplines
- Violence as a Public Health Problem: What we Know, and Where we are Going
- Behavioral Health and Injury Prevention: The Emergency Department as a Window to Community and Population Health
Reports and Other Information
Additional federal resources on violence prevention research can be found below.
- Understanding and Addressing the Health Impacts of Online Abuse and Harassment
- Landscape Analysis Summary for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Online Harassment Research Portfolio
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Funded Research, Programs, and Opportunities
- Violence Against Women Request for Information (RFI) Report
