Opening remarks by Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, specified forum goals. They were to develop a framework for what is known and not known about violence and violence prevention, to offer hope by sharing information about violence-prevention programs that have been effective, and to form new partnerships within the Federal Government and among public and private agencies. An address by Mark Rosenberg, acting associate director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documented violence as a public health problem. He proposed ways of preventing firearm injuries without banning the weapon itself. Another address discussed the historical dimension of violence and why it is so pervasive in American society. The speaker proposed ways to counteract this trend. Speakers who focused on what is and is not working in the safeguarding of children and violence prevention described a research program on the causes and correlates of delinquency (Rochester Youth Development Study) and the Howard University Prevention Project. Other topics discussed in the forum were how to build effective violence-prevention strategies and youths' perceptions of the violence threat and how to reduce it. Working group summaries and the report of the working groups are provided. Speaker biographies and participants list