Proportion of Violent Injuries Unreported to Law Enforcement

Wu, Daniel; Moore, Jasmine C.; Bowen, Daniel; Kollar, Laura M Mercer; Mays, Elizabeth; Simon, Thomas R.; Sumner, Steven A.

doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.5139

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(12 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Underreporting of violent injuries of all causes (not just firearm injuries) has been reported as high as 83% to 93% in one recent study in Atlanta. 13 As was the case for fatal injuries, the reasons for omission from law enforcement of nonfatal injuries were multifactorial, but a primary driver is likely due to reporting requirements. Kentucky is one of nine states that does not have a statute requiring mandatory reporting of firearm injuries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limitations of hospital and law enforcement databases in characterizing the epidemiology of firearm injury

Miller

Egger

Pike

et al. 2021

J Trauma Acute Care Surg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND:Current data on the epidemiology of firearm injury in the United States are incomplete. Common sources include hospital, law enforcement, consumer, and public health databases, but each database has limitations that exclude injury subgroups. By integrating hospital (inpatient and outpatient) and law enforcement databases, we hypothesized that a more accurate depiction of the totality of firearm injury in our region could be achieved. METHODS:We constructed a collaborative firearm injury database consisting of all patients admitted as inpatients to the regional level 1 trauma hospital (inpatient registry), patients treated and released from the emergency department (ED), and subjects encountering local law enforcement as a result of firearm injury in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Injuries recorded from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020, were analyzed. Outcomes, demographics, and injury detection rates from individual databases were compared with those of the combined collaborative database and compared using χ 2 testing across databases. RESULTS:The inpatient registry (n = 1,441) and ED database (n = 1,109) were combined, resulting in 2,550 incidents in the hospital database.The law enforcement database consisted of 2,665 patient incidents, with 2,008 incidents in common with the hospital database and 657 unique incidents. The merged collaborative database consisted of 3,207 incidents. In comparison with the collaborative database, the inpatient, total hospital (inpatient and ED), and law enforcement databases failed to include 55%, 20%, and 17% of all injuries, respectively. The hospital captured nearly 94% of survivors but less than 40% of nonsurvivors. Law enforcement captured 93% of nonsurvivors but missed 20% of survivors. Mortality (11-26%) and injury incidence were markedly different across the databases. DISCUSSION:The utilization of trauma registry or law enforcement databases alone do not accurately reflect the epidemiology of firearm injury and may misrepresent areas in need of greater injury prevention efforts.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limitations of hospital and law enforcement databases in characterizing the epidemiology of firearm injury

Miller

Egger

Pike

et al. 2021

J Trauma Acute Care Surg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They found only about 50% overlap between the two sources, suggesting many victims seeking an examination following an assault did not necessarily alert police. Wu et al (2019) attempted to match up violent injury incidents from an Atlanta trauma center to police reports from two nearby agencies over a year and a half period. They found a substantial proportion of hospital-treated injuries were not reported to police, estimating 83% of injuries did not have a matching police report in one agency and 93% in the other.…”

Section: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Beyond the Blue: The Utility of Emergency Medical Services Data in Understanding Violent Crime

Hibdon

Telep

Huff

2021

Criminal Justice Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

National victimization data suggest less than 50% of violent crime incidents are reported to the police. Official reports of crime to police, however, are often the only type of data used for the analysis of violence problems, the identification of geographic concentrations of violent crime, and the selection of targets for police and prevention resources. Yet, the question remains, are estimates of violent crime prevalence and location distorted from a unilateral reliance on police data? Here, we examine whether emergency medical service (EMS) data collected by the fire department are spatially concentrated in the same way as police data and whether these data can help identify instances of violence unreported to police in the city of Seattle between 2009 and 2011. We find high levels of concentration in both police and EMS data and evidence that new information is learned about the location of violence problems from utilizing multiple data sources. Overall, these findings contribute to a small but growing body of work that demonstrates the utility of nonconventional data in the identification of crime and harm concentrations of interest.

show abstract

“…A recent study indicates a large difference in the number of violent injuries reported to police and treated in a trauma center, further reflecting the necessity of health system involvement. 13 Second, we only included hospitals within the city of Detroit, likely resulting in under-sampling the places in which victims of violent crime go to receive care. We also did not consider transportation times or routes that may affect the hospital receiving an injury.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location of Violent Crime Relative to Trauma Resources in Detroit: Implications for Community Interventions

Clery

Dworkis

Sonuyi

et al. 2020

WestJEM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Detroit, Michigan, is among the leading United States cities for per-capita homicide and violent crime. Hospital- and community-based intervention programs could decrease the rate of violent-crime related injury but require a detailed understanding of the locations of violence in the community to be most effective. Methods: We performed a retrospective geospatial analysis of all violent crimes reported within the city of Detroit from 2009-2015 comparing locations of crimes to locations of major hospitals. We calculated distances between violent crimes and trauma centers, and applied summary spatial statistics. Results: Approximately 1.1 million crimes occurred in Detroit during the study period, including approximately 200,000 violent crimes. The distance between the majority of violent crimes and hospitals was less than five kilometers (3.1 miles). Among violent crimes, the closest hospital was an outlying Level II trauma center 60% of the time. Conclusion: Violent crimes in Detroit occur throughout the city, often closest to a Level II trauma center. Understanding geospatial components of violence relative to trauma center resources is important for effective implementation of hospital- and community-based interventions and targeted allocation of resources.

show abstract

Proportion of Violent Injuries Unreported to Law Enforcement

Abstract: Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funding organizations had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

The limitations of hospital and law enforcement databases in characterizing the epidemiology of firearm injury

The limitations of hospital and law enforcement databases in characterizing the epidemiology of firearm injury

Going Beyond the Blue: The Utility of Emergency Medical Services Data in Understanding Violent Crime

Location of Violent Crime Relative to Trauma Resources in Detroit: Implications for Community Interventions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About