The discussion focuses on developments in the United States and Canada. Medical professionals have had an increasing interest in criminal violence over the past 10 years. The costs of violent crime have resulted in a call from the public health field for preventive action. Characteristics of the public health approach to violence prevention include the view of crime as a threat to community health rather than community order; a focus on primary prevention; the view that crime results from a complex system of causes rather than offender motivation alone; and the use of a systematic approach involving health event surveillance, epidemiological analysis, intervention design, and evaluation focused on a single and unambiguous outcome. One prevention effort is the Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents developed by Prothrow-Stith. Despite these efforts, the public health approach to violence faces several challenges. 40 references