A new Unicef report on child poverty offers some radical solutions if the children in the world 24 richest countries are to enjoy better lives.

A study conducted in rural South Africa demonstrates that the prevalence of early childhood experiences of abuse and maltreatment is significantly linked to the risk for adverse health outcomes later in life, including contracting HIV.

The problems which face evaluation against the backdrop of economic cuts and the resulting uncertainties of the present time were discussed at the United Kingdom Evaluation Society’s annual conference. But for all the problems there potential opportunities were also pinpointed.

Are there factors in children’s early lives which increase the risk of criminality or conduct disorder in later life? Results from a study of children born in Britain forty years ago indicate this may be the case and underline the need for preventative programs.

Crime studies are too often failing to provide key information about how they are conducted. And, unlike health trials, reporting has not improved over time and larger studies do not perform better than smaller ones.

Multi-systemic therapy for juvenile offenders may bring financial results, but initial encouraging results of a trial need further testing.

How do scientists communicate their findings to those who might use them? Online clearinghouses of evidence-based programs are a way of doing this but are not without their flaws.

Researchers at King’s College, London, who have been trying to establish from the available evidence whether programs that can justifiably claim to improve young people’s self belief can also change behavior, have found nothing much of substance in a catch of 2,000 studies.

New research suggests efforts to narrow the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor in England have run aground. But is it too soon to judge or has the focus been too narrow?