13 - Comments on the Autobiographies of the World War II Babies by Younger Peers

Summary

Six younger investigators of violent behavior comment on the autobiographies of their senior colleagues. They were chosen to represent investigators at different points in their careers, as well as different countries and different topics. Their comments highlight the family, economic, cultural, and professional contexts that influenced the lives and careers of their senior colleagues. They also highlight the general lessons to be learned from their research. They then describe how the last five decades of work has set the agenda for the next generations of scholars. Suggested future research topics include: 1) testing the extent to which reducing identified risk factors has preventive impacts; 2) studying genetics and epigenetics; 3) using machine learning; 4) using electronic tools to substantially increase data collection in longitudinal studies; 5) expanding the education and training of aggression researchers by integrating biological sciences, data sciences such as bioinformatics and machine learning, social sciences, moral sciences, and the art of policymaking; 6) creating international research teams to do cross-cultural studies and also address global violence research; and 7) scaling up evidence-based programs for wider dissemination and to achieve population-level impacts.