Violence Prevention Safety Alert
SAFETY ALERT: If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For free and confidential support, call or text the Iowa Victim Service Call Center. Text IOWAHELP to 20121 or call 1-800-770-1650
List items for Violence Prevention
Violence Prevention is a public health priority area that addresses the social, environmental, and community conditions that contribute to higher rates of violence, abuse, and other problematic behaviors that cause harm in our relationships, families, and communities.
Decades of research, prevention, and services have provided valuable insights into various forms of violence and effective ways to prevent and respond to them. One consistent finding is the strong interconnection between different forms of violence (CDC).
According to the Iowa 2021 Statewide Survey of Safety & Violence, 70% of Iowans reported personally knowing someone who had been physically, emotionally, or verbally abused. Of that, 40% had been abused themselves. Addressing violence and safety is a priority that affects the lives of Iowans.
Using the public health approach to violence prevention, we collaborate with state-wide partners and key impacted communities to:
- Gather data on the incidence of sexual violence in Iowa.
- Manage the Iowa Violent Death Reporting System.
- Provide staff administrative support to the Iowa Domestic Abuse Death Review Team.
- Administer federal and state sexual violence prevention funds.
- Provide training and technical assistance to public health programs, medical providers, and allied victim service providers on improving their response to survivors of violence through policy, protocol, or practice organizational changes.
- Support the work of state and local agencies, coalitions, and organizations in their efforts to end sexual violence.
- Participate in multi-disciplinary teams, committees, and workgroups to advance the safety, health, and well-being of Iowans.
Communities are powerful and one of the most effective resources for changing social, environmental, and community conditions across Iowa. Prevention starts with people coming together to identify priorities.
We work closely with state-level partners working to address Intimate Partner Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Firearm Injuries and Fatalities, Community Violence, Youth Violence, and Abuse in Later Life.
Learn more at VetoViolence
- Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention
- Risk and Protective Factors
- Preventive Health & Health Services Block Grant – Sex Offense Prevention + (Appendix A shows page content)
- Public Health Response to Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Violence, and Exploitation + (Appendix B shows page content)
- Rape Prevention and Education Program + (Appendix C shows page content)
- Sexual Violence Prevention Training and Prevention Programming + (Appendix D shows page content)
- Violent Death Reporting System + (Appendix E shows page content)
2025 Violence Prevention Training & Technical Assistance Catalog
Our training and technical assistance improve medical systems, public health programs, community settings, employers, businesses, and allied victim services providers’ response to survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking through public health-informed policy, protocol, or practice implementation.
+ Request a training
+ Request technical assistance
Sexual violence is sexual activity when consent is not obtained or freely given. It impacts every community and affects both sexes and people of all sexual orientations and ages. Anyone can experience or perpetrate sexual violence.
The perpetrator of sexual violence is usually someone the survivor knows. This can include a friend, current or former intimate partner, coworker, neighbor, or family member. Sexual violence can occur in person, online, or through technology. This includes posting or sharing sexual pictures of someone without their consent, or non-consensual sexting.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship. Intimate partner refers to both current and former spouses and dating partners.
IPV can vary in how often it happens and how severe it is. It can range from one episode of violence to chronic and severe episodes over multiple years.
IPV can include any of the following types of behavior:
- Physical violence is when a person hurts or tries to hurt a partner by using physical force.
- Sexual violence is forcing or attempting to force a partner to take part in a sex act, sexual touching, or a non-physical sexual event (e.g., sexting) when the partner does not or cannot consent.
- Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention and contact by a partner that causes fear or concern for one's own safety or the safety of someone close to the victim.
- Psychological aggression is the use of verbal and non-verbal communication with the intent to harm a partner mentally or emotionally or to exert control over a partner.
A firearm injury is a wound or penetrating injury from a weapon that uses a powder charge to fire a projectile. Weapons that use a powder charge include handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
Injuries from air- and gas-powered guns, BB guns, and pellet guns are not considered firearm injuries. This is because these types of guns do not use a powder charge to fire a projectile.
There are many types of firearm injuries, which can be fatal or nonfatal:
- Intentionally self-inflicted: suicide or nonfatal self-harm injury from a firearm.
- Unintentional: fatal or nonfatal firearm injuries that happen while someone is cleaning or playing with a firearm or other incidents of an accidental firing without evidence of intentional harm.
- Interpersonal violence: homicide or nonfatal assault injury from a firearm.
- Legal intervention: firearm injuries inflicted by the police or other law enforcement agents acting in the line of duty. For example, firearm injuries that occur while arresting or attempting to arrest someone, maintaining order, or ensuring safety.
- Undetermined intent: firearm injuries where there is not enough information to determine whether the injury was intentionally self-inflicted, unintentional, the result of legal intervention, or from an act of interpersonal violence.
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). Examples include:
- Experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect.
- Witnessing violence in the home or community.
- Having a family member attempt or die by suicide.
Also included are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding. Examples can include growing up in a household with:
- Substance use problems.
- Mental health problems.
- Instability due to parental separation.
- Instability due to household members being in jail or prison.
- The examples above are not a complete list of adverse experiences. Many other traumatic experiences could impact health and well-being. This can include not having enough food to eat, experiencing homelessness or unstable housing, or experiencing discrimination
Community violence happens between unrelated individuals, who may or may not know each other, generally outside the home. Examples include assaults or fights among groups and shootings in public places, such as schools and on the streets.
Community violence affects millions of people and their families, schools, and communities every year.
- For youth ages 10 to 24, homicide is the second leading cause of death.
- For people 25 to 34, homicide is the third leading cause of death.
Community violence can cause significant physical injuries, including death, to community members. Living in a community experiencing violence is also associated with increased risk of developing chronic diseases. Concerns about violence may prevent some people from engaging in healthy behaviors, such as walking, bicycling, using parks, and accessing healthy food.
Violence scares people out of participating in neighborhood activities, limits business growth, strains education, justice, and medical systems, and slows community progress.
Older person abuse is an intentional act or failure to act that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult. An older adult is someone aged 60 or older.
The abuse occurs at the hands of a caregiver or other trusted person. Common types of abuse include:
- Physical abuse is illness, injury, functional impairment, or death resulting from the intentional use of physical force. Examples include hitting, kicking, or pushing.
- Sexual abuse is forced or unwanted sexual interaction. Examples include unwanted sexual contact or penetration or non-contact acts such as sexual harassment.
- Emotional or psychological abuse refers to verbal or nonverbal behaviors that inflict anguish, fear, or distress. Examples include humiliation, threats, or harassment.
- Neglect is the failure to meet an older adult's basic needs. These needs include food, water, shelter, clothing, hygiene, and essential medical care.
- Financial abuse is the illegal, unauthorized, or improper use of money, benefits, property, or assets for the benefit of someone other than the older adult.
Youth violence is the intentional use of physical force or power to threaten or harm others by young people ages 10-24.
It can include things like fighting, bullying, threats with weapons, and gang-related violence. A young person can be involved with youth violence as a victim, offender, or witness. Youth violence can have serious and lasting effects on young people’s physical, mental, and social health. It can harm development and contribute to impaired decision-making and learning challenges. It can also contribute to decreased connections to peers and adults, and trouble coping with stress.
Youth violence is linked to negative health and well-being outcomes and disproportionately impacts communities of color. Violence increases the risk for behavioral and mental health difficulties. These can include future violence perpetration and victimization. Other outcomes include smoking, substance use, obesity, high-risk sexual behavior, depression, academic difficulties, school dropout, and suicide.
Violence increases health care costs, decreases property value, negatively impacts school attendance, and decreases access to community support services. Addressing the short- and long-term consequences of violence strains community resources. As a result, this limits the resources available to states and communities for addressing other needs.
Violence Prevention Data
We continuously build and strengthen public health infrastructure with state and community leaders to better understand risk and protective factors specific to Iowa communities.
Violence Prevention data exists across sectors in Iowa. Therefore, we collaborate with a multitude of partners to coordinate the Iowa Violence Prevention Data Steering Committee, “community narrative, qualitative storytelling, and incidents data are some of the most helpful data sources in preventing violence before it happens” – Iowa Violence Prevention Data Steering Committee Member.
- Iowa Attorney General’s Office – Victim Assistance Section Publications
- Iowa 2024 County-level Environmental Scan (Preliminary Findings)
- Iowa 2021 Statewide Survey of Safety & Violence
- Iowa 2009 Cost of Sexual Violence Report
- Iowa Domestic Abuse Death Review Team
- 2019 – 2022 Coming Soon
- 2017 - 2018
- Older reports are available on the State Library of Iowa – Iowa Publications Online.
- Iowa Emergency Department Sexual Assault Visits
- Iowa Violent Death Reporting System:
- National Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys
- National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS)
- National Network to End Domestic Violence – DV Counts Census Survey – Iowa
To submit an update to this list or to learn more, reach out to Monica Goedken.
- Iowa Criminal Code 236 DOMESTIC ABUSE
- Iowa Criminal Code 709 SEXUAL ABUSE
- Iowa Victim Rights Code 915 Victim Rights
- IAC 6/16/21 Inspections and Appeals[481] Ch 51 Administrative Rules for Facilities