Doug Noll’s Violence Reduction Keynote is Powerful and Effective

Violence reduction is not something that someone else will take care of. According to Doug Noll, it’s not the responsibility of law enforcement, of city councils, of churches, or any other group to stop violence. It’s your responsibility. And he wants to show you exactly how violence comes about and what you can do every day to reduce its affliction on society.

As a professional mediator, a second degree black belt, and one who walks into maximum security prisons teaching murderers how to be peacemakers, Doug Noll has witnessed every conflict imaginable. “Violence,” he says, “comes down to the human brain.”

“There is no such thing as a murder gene,” he says. “Instead, murderers and violent, aggressive people are made by our society.”

“The first 33 months, including 9 months in utero and 24 months after birth, define who we will be as human beings,” Doug says. “Mess up those 33 months even a little bit and the odds tilt strongly towards violence and aggression.“

Some of the revelations in Doug’s talks are:

• In the second trimester, brain cells start propagating at over 250,000 neurons per second. Think about that, Throw in some alcohol or prescription drugs and what happens to those millions of cells being created in 10s of seconds? How about adding a dose of Mom’s cortisol, a stress neuro hormone that shuts down all non-essential functions like the immune system because she is being threatened with a violent beating?”
• The vast majority of violence, including homicides, are impulsive. This means that the orbito-prefrontal cortex has failed its job to manage strong emotions arising in the limbic system. That failure is invariably due to defective construction during pregnancy, caused by Mom’s alcohol, drugs, mental illness, or heavy stress coupled with an abusive or neglectful upbringing in the first 24 months of life. Solve those two problems and you will end most of the violence.
• A small proportion of violence is premeditated. Sociopaths suffer from the same developmental abuses as impulsive aggressors, only worse.
• The single most important thing parents can do for their children besides loving them is to teach them emotional intelligence. Infants are far more sentient than they seem. They begin constructing their emotional systems before birth and the process accelerates at delivery. Pay attention to a baby’s emotions. Label them verbally. Help infants learn how to cope with their feelings. So simple, so powerful, yet so misunderstood.

Catch Doug’s passion for violence reduction through easy, practical tips and techniques that you can use right now to make your family, home, school, and community safer and peaceful.