Youth violence is a serious problem that can have lasting harmful effects on victims and their families, friends, and communities. The goal for youth violence prevention is to stop youth violence from happening in the first place.

Preventing youth violence requires addressing factors at all levels of the social ecology—the individual, relational, community, and societal levels.

CDC’s technical package, A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors, highlights strategies based on the best available evidence to help states and communities prevent or reduce youth violence. The strategies are intended to work in combination and reinforce each other. Strategies and their corresponding approaches are listed in the table below.