Public health and moral blindness : promoting desirable relationships in violence prevention education

In the last decade the public health movement has bolstered efforts to prevent interpersonal violence through bringing social policy attention and needed dollars to prevention initiatives. Features in a public health approach to prevention include an evidence-based conception of the risks and so-called 'protective' factors associated with the unwanted problem and the use of sophisticated evaluation tools to monitor prevention efforts. This article critically reviews public health prevention methodology as applied to interpersonal violence prevention at the primary level through drawing on findings from a qualitative inquiry into the moral dimensions of violence prevention education. It examines the premise that an empirical evidence base can determine what is desirable in relationships, together with the assumption that expert violence prevention educators can use this evidence to teach others about relationship desirability. In relying on a scientific and empirical evidence base, it is argued that the public health prevention model fails to recognize important moral dimensions of human relationships.