The following is the executive summary from this report.

1.   Although violence is increasing alarmingly in our society, it is neither universal nor inevitable, but a behaviour that is caused and can be prevented. Many societies have existed without discernible inter-personal violence.

2.   A violent act results from an interaction between two components: an individual's propensity (personal factors) and external triggers (social factors). Social factors alone, however undesirable, lead to violence only when the internal propensity is also present. In the absence of a weapon, a trigger is harmless.

3.   The propensity to violence develops primarily from wrong treatment before age 3.

4.   The structure of the developing infant human brain is a crucial factor in the creation (or not) of violent tendencies because early patterns are established not only psychologically but at the physiological level of brain formation.

5.   Empathy is the single greatest inhibitor of the development of propensity to violence. Empathy fails to develop when parents or prime carers fail to attune with their infants. Absence of such parental attunement combined with harsh discipline is a recipe for violent, antisocial offspring.

6.   Violence is triggered in high-propensity people by social factors such as unemployment, poor housing, over-crowding, economic inequality, declining moral values and stress. Alcohol plays a significant role in the timing of violence. Since these factors reflect long-term cultural trends that are difficult to reverse, investment in reducing the number of people with propensity to violence is a strategic imperative.

7.   Violence costs the UK more than £20 billion per annum. A tiny fraction of this is spent on prevention, and most of that on the least effective age groups (e.g. 5-15). Early (0-3) intervention is fruitful and cost-effective. Negative cycles can be transformed and children given the opportunity to grow into contributing, personally fulfilled adults (and future parents).

8.   The single most effective way to stop producing people with the propensity to violence is to ensure infants are reared in an environment that fosters their development of empathy. The surest way to achieve this is by supporting parents in developing attunement with their infants.

9.   WAVE's search for global best practice in prevention of violence identified many effective early interventions. These include programmes which develop attunement and empathy in:

(i) tomorrow's parents while they are still in school,
(ii) current parents and
(iii) parents-to-be.

10.  Recognition of the importance of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and investment in its diagnosis and treatment could play a major role in combating the cycle of violence.

11.  WAVE recommends large-scale implementation of a series of pilot studies of approved early intervention programmes.

12.  WAVE recommends the selection of one British town or city as a large-scale test area for simultaneous implementation of a full range of effective intervention strategies, to see if their combined effects might be cumulative.

13.  WAVE invites debate on the merits of a focused, national crime prevention agency to coordinate, fund and drive effective early prevention strategies.