The goals of high-precision atomic parity violation (APV) studies are to search
for new physics beyond the standard model of the electroweak interaction by 
accurate determination of the weak charge and to probe parity violation in the
nucleus.  Interpretation of all past APV experiments and some of the ongoing
ones requires theoretical calculations. I will discuss the current status and
future prospects of atomic parity violation studies and the implications for
searches for physics beyond the standard model. The recent advances in theoretical
methodology that allowed to reduce theoretical uncertainty in the analysis of the
cesium experiment are described. I will also discuss recent accurate calculation
of the nuclear spin-dependent parity-violating amplitude. New result still leads
to the discrepancy between constraints on weak nucleon-nucleon coupling obtained
from the cesium anapole moment and those obtained from other nuclear PV
measurements.