COMHLT 229

Course Description

This course focuses on family and sexual violence from a public health perspective. Since a public health approach strives to provide maximum benefit for the largest number of people, we will examine the impact of family and sexual violence on the health, safety, and well-being of individuals as well as populations. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary evidence base, we will review research from epidemiology, medicine, sociology, psychology, criminology, education, and economics to understand the magnitude of family and sexual violence, how these experiences are measured, and the determinants and consequences of family and sexual violence. A life-course perspective will be used to learn how factors at multiple levels (e.g., individual, family, community, cultural) influence risk for violence during childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, midlife and later life, and how these experiences at different time periods interact and affect health outcomes throughout life.