NCJ Number
145592
Date Published
1992
Length
365 pages
Annotation
The focus of this document is on identifying groups of people whose activities, age, income, location, and other characteristics render them especially susceptible to serious injury.
Abstract
This reference documents the nature and importance of the injury problem in the United States. It explores more than 60 causes of injury, including motor vehicle-related injuries, which constitute more than one-third of all injury deaths, homicide, suicide, falls, fires, drowning, firearms, poisoning, sports, work, aviation, and large trucks. For each category, figures illustrate differences by age, race, sex, geographic area, urban/rural residence, and per capita income. Many of the chapters also illustrate temporal variations, historical trends, and preventive measures. Representative of the information presented herein is the chapter on homicide, which reveals that this is the 11th leading cause of death for all ages combined, the fourth leading cause for ages 1-14, second for ages 15-24, and the leading cause of death among blacks aged 15-34. During the first year of life, homicide claims more lives than any other cause of injury. Firearms are used in almost two-thirds of all homicides. Among males, homicide rates are highest at ages 25-29; among females, ages 20-24. For ages 7 and older, firearms are the most common means of homicide. Homicide rates are highest for blacks, lowest for whites. For all methods of homicide combined and for each type of homicide, the rate is about three times as high among people in central cities as among people living elsewhere. Half of all homicides occur on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, with the largest proportion occurring on Saturdays. After reaching a peak in 1980, the trend in the homicide rate during the early 1980s was downward, especially for firearm homicide. However, later (unpublished) FBI statistics indicate that between 1988 and 1989, firearm homicides increased by 9 percent while homicide by other means increased by less than 1 percent. Additional details on homicide death are found in the chapter on Firearms. These deaths are usually analyzed separately as unintentional, suicidal, or homicidal. Often, however, it is appropriate to consider them as a whole to clarify the magnitude of the problem and to identify preventive measures that may be effective regardless of the intent and circumstances of injury. This chapter presents data for unintentional firearm injury and for firearm deaths as a whole and supplements data found in the chapter on homicide. Firearm deaths are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause for black males aged 15-34. One of the most striking changes in recent decades has been the emergence of teenagers and young adults as a high-risk group. The trend over time in homicides has been largely determined by firearm homicides. The shape of the homicide curve since about 1970 has been dictated by handgun homicides alone. Analyses in this book identify population subgroups at high risk of injury and death. More comprehensive discussions of ways to reduce injuries and related public policies are presented in many of the references cited and elsewhere in the literature. Many new questions raised by the analyses in this book can be answered only by additional research requiring better data or the enhancement of existing sources of data. There is a reference list at the end of each chapter; a list of abbreviations; an appendix showing sources of data, basis for computations and computational methods; an index of authors; and an index of subjects.