Editors: Elliott will be available to take calls on May 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on May 18 from 9 a.m. until noon.
Delbert Elliott, professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado at Boulder, appeared before the Governor's Columbine Review Commission on two occasions to address issues including bullying and youth violence.
Elliott "was of great service and I think will be recognized in the report for his valuable work," said William Erickson, chairman of the Governor's Columbine Review Commission.
Elliott, who has taught at CU-Boulder since 1967, is a nationally recognized authority on violence prevention and was the scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report to the Nation on Youth Violence released in January.
He is a fellow and former president of the American Society of Criminology and is the co-author of several books on juvenile delinquency, drugs and mental health including "Explaining Delinquency and Drug Use," "Violence in American Schools" and the forthcoming "Good Kids From Bad Neighborhoods."
An article in the Journal of Criminal Justice identified Elliott as the third most frequently cited scholar in American criminology journals in 1995. He also has conducted work in areas including substance use and abuse, drunk driving, runaway children, school dropouts, sexual deviance and domestic violence.
Elliott has directed CU-Boulder's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence since it was founded in 1992. Since then, the center has received grants totaling more than $18 million from state and federal agencies and private foundations. It currently employs about 40 people.
The center is coordinating the $2.2 million Safe Communities-Safe Schools initiative in Colorado, funded by The Colorado Trust, which is offering safe school planning assistance to every school in the state. Over the three years of the initiative, which began in fall 1999, the center will provide any of Colorado's 1,500 schools or their school districts with information, practical planning tools and technical assistance to conduct safe school planning that addresses each community's unique needs.
As part of that initiative, Elliott and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar visited schools throughout the state last year. The common concerns they heard on the tour helped lead to the anti-bullying bill recently passed by the state Legislature.
The violence prevention center also is making its Blueprints for Violence Prevention series of model programs available to communities across the nation. All 11 of these programs have been reviewed by CU-Boulder researchers and deemed to meet the highest scientific standards of effectiveness. The 11 Blueprints for Violence Prevention programs are:
o Bullying Prevention Program
o Life Skills Training
o Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
o Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies
o Quantum Opportunities Program
o Multisystemic Therapy
o Functional Family Therapy
o Midwestern Prevention Project
o Prenatal and Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses
o Multidemensional Treatment Foster Care
o The Incredible Years
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of CU's Institute of Behavioral Science, where Elliott also is director of the Program on Problem Behavior. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Washington and holds a bachelor's degree from Pomona College in California.
For more information contact the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at (303) 492-1032 or visit the center's Web site at .