NCJ Number
198511
Journal
Pfizer Journal Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: 2001 Pages: 12-14
Editor(s)
Salvatore J. Giorgianni
Date Published
2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
As an essential part of a public health approach to addressing violence, this article discusses the global effort to quantify the problem of violence.
Abstract
Measuring the problem of violence goes beyond simply counting cases. It includes delineating mortality, morbidity, and risk-taking behaviors. Public health experts focus on collecting information on the demographic characteristics of victims and perpetrators, the circumstances under which violence occurs, the victim-perpetrator relationship, and the severity and cost of the injuries. Currently, there are no perfect statistics on global violence; those that do exist are only the first attempts at estimation. The degree of data accuracy varies from country to country. Despite some positive trends in some countries, there has been a steeply increasing global rate of violence not related to war or combat. Average global homicide rates, derived from a 34-country sample, increased from 5.82 per 100,000 in 1980-1984 to 8.86 per 100,000 in 1990-94, an increase of more than 50 percent in a decade. Using the burden of disease, a measure of direct and indirect effects on health, approximately 14.5 percent of the burden in the developed world and 15.2 percent in the developing world are due to injury and violence. Regarding which forms of violence take the most lives, in one recent year suicide globally took 786,000 lives, homicide took 563,000 lives, and war took 502,000 lives. In countries with reliable reporting, as many as 1 in 5,000 children under age five die each year from violence. This article also provides estimates of violence against women, violence against men, sexual violence, and domestic violence. Information is also provided on the most violent regions of the world and the need for new methods of data collection that encompass the full impact of violence on lives and economies.