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About NVISS

The National Violent Injury Statistics System (NVISS) is working to establish ongoing, national data systems on violent injuries. NVISS's major project over the past three years has been to pilot-test, and press for the national adoption of, a uniform reporting system for violent deaths. The project has culminated in the establishment of the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Background

Motor vehicles crashes, suicide, and homicide are the three leading causes of injury death in the United States today, with over 30,000 suicides and 18,000 homicides each year. Although detailed federal data systems exist to inform policy-making about motor vehicle-related deaths, [click here for a sample of policy evaluations using federal motor vehicle data], only the most rudimentary data are available on violent deaths. Public debates on policies to reduce violence and suicide rely largely on anecdote and rhetoric in the absence of objective data.

In response, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center launched the National Violent Injury Statistics System in 1999 with private foundation support. Its initial focus was on developing a national reporting system for firearm-related injuries. The focus expanded in the second year to include deaths from all homicides and suicides, regardless of weapon type. The purpose of the reporting system is to collect objective, on-going data for use in planning and evaluating policies aimed at reducing violent deaths.

The system was modeled after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's longstanding Fatality Analysis Reporting System that collects detailed data on each of the nation's 40,000 motor vehicle deaths annually. It also builds on models developed by the Medical College of Wisconsin and other sites participating in the pilot.

Sites

A dozen states and metropolitan areas collaborated with NVISS to design and pilot test the reporting system. Ten sites have received grants from the project and collect data covering the states of Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Utah, and Wisconsin and in Allegheny County (PA), Miami-Dade County, Detroit, Atlanta, and San Francisco. [click here to view pilot sites]

Data Collection

Together the sites have developed uniform data elements , reporting protocols, and software for the reporting system. The system collects existing data from four major sources:

  • death certificates
  • coroner/medical examiner reports
  • police reports
  • crime laboratories

NVISS sites collect detailed information on victims and offenders, including:

  • demographics
  • substance use
  • relationship of victim to offender
  • circumstances leading to the injury
  • whether the event occurred at home or work
  • date and location of the incident
  • weapon type

 

For suicide deaths, sites collect information on the victim's physical and mental health, substance abuse problems, treatment status, and current life crises. For firearm deaths, information collected includes the weapon's type, make, model, and caliber. For deaths involving under-age shooters, sites attempt to document how the youth obtained the weapon.

An incident-based, relational database collects and stores the data and is available free of charge from NVISS. Unlike the existing national data systems (death certificates and FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports), the reporting system can identify very specific subtypes of violence such as combination murder-suicides and assault weapon shootings and can identify cases of intimate partner violence and child abuse deaths with more precision. Data will be made available to researchers, policymakers, and others so they can better understand and evaluate avenues to prevent violence and suicide.

Expanding to a National Reporting System

NVISS has worked with many organizations and government agencies nationwide to ensure that the reporting system becomes institutionalized and implemented nationally. As of September 2003, Congress has appropriated $3 million to the CDC for the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) and CDC has augmented that with internal monies to fund thirteen states to implement the system. Additional states will be added to the system as funds become available. NVISS assisted the CDC on designing NVDRS by providing uniform data elements, a coding training manual and curriculum, and an optional module for children's violent deaths that uses Child Fatality Reviews as a data source. NVISS also provides technical assistance on software, quality assurance protocols and documentation, and standardized analysis and dissemination formats.

Funding

Funding for NVISS has been provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation; Atlantic Philanthropies; the Center on Crime, Communities and Culture of the Open Society Institute; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the Joyce Foundation.