According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every hour seven people in this country die a violent death. 

A violent death, as defined by the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), is a death by homicide, suicide, legal intervention (excluding execution), a firearms unintentional death or a death with an undetermined intent and a link to violence.

To help stop violent deaths, researchers, law enforcement and policy makers need to determine the “why” behind these acts.

“Knowing the why allows for much more efficacious and tailored prevention programs.”

Dr. Karen Liller

“Knowing the why allows for much more efficacious and tailored prevention programs,” noted Dr. Karen Liller, a USF College of Public Health professor and injury expert. “These are critical answers to know for injury prevention.”  

Details Matter

In 2018, Florida joined the NVDRS. According to its website, “The NVDRS is the only state-based surveillance reporting system that pools more than 600 unique data elements from multiple sources [law enforcement, coroners, toxicology reports and medical examiners, for example] into an anonymous database. 

When the state joined the NVDRS, it partnered with Liller and her team to extract and analyze data on violent deaths. 

Liller is the principal investigator for the state contract and is working with colleagues from the COPH, including Drs. Nicholas Thomas and Abraham Salinas Miranda, abstractors Jennifer Ramirez, Elizabeth Amoros, MPH student Alexis DiBlanda and doctoral students Kelli Agrawal and Rolando Trejos.

“We receive death certificates and medical examiner data from the state to match with the law enforcement data to paint fuller pictures of the deaths,” Liller said. “Through a secure portal, we submit these data to the CDC for the NVDRS, utilizing over 600 variables in a defined dataset. With this linked information, NVDRS is able to provide a more complete picture of the circumstances that contribute to violent deaths.”

Violent death in Florida

Liller and her team have found that the leading cause of violent death in the state is suicide, and that males have a higher injury rate than females. 

“Suicides have long been the most common type of violent death, even though many individuals think about homicides before suicides,” Liller said. “This could be because of the media and other attention given to homicides rather than suicides. And the reasons why males have higher injury rates, in general, than females could be due to gender roles, aggression, risk-taking behaviors, etc.”

Not just how, but why

“The more we know, the more we become better agents of change so that violent deaths may decrease.”

Dr. Karen Liller

Understanding the circumstances that surround these deaths is critical, said Liller. 

“For example, if we discover from our data that young Black males who have committed suicide in Florida have experienced life events such as a change in residence or a diagnosis of depression, then programs in schools and communities can begin to target those issues and address coping mechanisms. This can be a step toward a more tailored program and one that can be better evaluated for efficacy. The more we know, the more we become better agents of change so that violent deaths may decrease,” she said.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health