http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/06/24/crimes.injuries/index.html

CNN.com - Report: 1 in 8 injured in violent crimes hurt severely - June 24, 2001

Report: 1 in 8 injured in violent crimes hurt severely
June 24, 2001 Posted: 5:31 PM EDT (2131 GMT)

From Mike Ahlers
CNN Assignment Editor

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Of an average of about 2.6 million Americans who were
injured in violent crimes every year from 1992 through 1998, 344,000 -- or
one in eight of the injured victims -- was hurt severely, according to a
newly released government study.
The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention cooperated on the report, based on the
National Crime Victimization Survey, and looks at injuries resulting from
crimes between 1992 and 1998. There were 10.9 million violent crimes
reported in 1992, peaking at 11.6 million the following year before
declining to 8.5 million in 1998.
About one-quarter of all crime victims -- or an average of 2.6 million
people each year -- were injured during the crime, the study says. Most of
the injuries were minor, but about one in eight of those injured victims
were severely hurt.
Severe injuries include gunshot or knife wounds, broken bones, loss of
teeth, internal injuries, loss of consciousness, and other injuries
requiring two or more days of hospitalization.

On average, more than 21,000 people were murdered each year. For every
1,000 violent crimes, two are homicides.
Report co-author Thomas Simon of the CDC said he was intrigued by the
relationship between offenders and victims. "Among injured victims, one in
three reported that (they) had been victimized previously by the same
offender," Simon said.
Females who were injured in a violent crime were more likely to have been
victimized by an intimate -- such as a spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend --
than by a stranger. The opposite is true for injured males; injured males
are more likely to have been victimized by a stranger.
The report "provides information on how we target prevention programs --
on where we target our efforts," Simon said.
Injury rates from violence were higher among the young, the poor, urban
dwellers, blacks, Hispanics and American Indians. Injury rates were lower
among the elderly, persons with higher incomes, persons with higher
educational attainment, and the married or widowed.
Simon said the report does not include information before 1992 because the
survey questions were changed in 1992 in an effort to get more reliable
answers, particularly from victims of sexual abuse.

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