Although many lessons have been learnt in terms of responding to the immediate threat of another high school shooting, ways to prevent this ever happening have been left by the wayside, despite compelling evidence.

Despite a growing number of violence prevention programs that have been proven to work, the majority of schools in the US continue to invest in ineffective programs or oppressive security measures. Speaking in Birmingham, UK - the site of a $60m investment in evidence-based interventions for children - prevention expert Del Elliott reflects on the challenges faced by policy makers who go against the grain.

The UK and the US have it wrong. Taking children into care in times of trouble is not a perilous alternative to leaving them with their birth families; it is a valuable means of providing family support. That’s how they regard it in Scandinavia, says a UK research team, and all the evidence suggests they’re right.

The Obama administration’s Serve America Bill, which seeks to rejuvenate ideas about social responsibility and community service by extending the scope of the volunteer movement to education and environmental action, is raising the profile of mentoring. What might that have to do with a revival of interest in the UK in the value of residential care?

Starting a week of reports from Japan, where Prevention Action Executive Editor Michael Little will be meeting child development and prevention experts to find out about conditions and potential connections in a country performing well against UNICEF measures and where prevention scientists and activists are playing an increasingly important role.

It was the big idea when Shakespeare was writing The Tempest and it’s the big idea behind much contemporary child development research – but the complexity of the relationship between nature and nurture continues to defeat the most brilliant one-track minds.