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2 Just. Rsch. & Pol'y 1 (2000)

handle is hein.journals/jcerhadp2 and id is 1 raw text is: 0 USING HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM DATA TO ASSESS INTIMATE VIOLENCE- RELATED INJURIES Kevin J. Strom 0 Abstract Hospital emergency department statistics represent a distinct and underutilized source for measuring nonfatal intimate violence, especially those cases that result in serious injury. This study attempts to gain an improved understanding of these types of inci- dents through the use of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a nationally representative sample of U.S. hospital emergency departments. Findings from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) intentional injury supplement of NEISS, the Study of Injured Victims of Violence (SIVV), indicate that emergency departments treated more than 243,000 intimate violence-related injuries in 1994. Eighty-four percent of people intentionally injured by an intimate were female. Weapons were used in 27% of all intimate violence cases, but were more likely to have been used in injuries inflicted on male patients than female patients (68% of male injuries versus 19% of female injuries). Findings from the SIVV also indicate that previous surveys may have undercounted intimate violence injuries treated in hospital emergency de- partments, as estimates were 4 times greater than the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and 1.5 times greater than the National Family Violence Survey (NFVS). I would like to thank Robert Brame, Sally Simpson, and Charles Wellford from the Uni- versity of Maryland, College Park, and Thomas Hester, Marika Litras, and Steven Smith from the Bureau of Justice Statisticsfor their helpful editorial comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments. Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Maryland, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, or the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice. JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 2000. © 2000 Justice Research and Statistics Association