Life Cycle of Violence: Implications for Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

According to Healthy People 2020, "Acts of violence are among the top 15 killers of Americans of all ages." Once thought of solely as a criminal justice issue, violence prevention and intervention have been embraced as a major public health issue. The television drama, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU), claims to be "fictional" and states that their show "does not depict any actual person or event." Yet many episodes strongly resemble real-life situations "ripped from the headlines," with a few added twists and turns to enhance the plot! Students will view SVU episodes and read peerreviewed articles to guide interactive discussions on the impact of violence over the course of the lifespan on health and wellbeing. Insights from this course will drive more thoughtful and informed practice when working with this important leading health indicator. Note that this course forms part of the Masters in Public Health graduate degree program, rather than the MD program. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.