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Butchart, Alexander, Christopher Mikton and Etienne Krug. 2014 ‘Box 2: Estimating Global Deaths Resulting from Homicide.’ Global Status Report on Violence Prevention 2014; Part II (Box 2), p. 9. Geneva: World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 10 December

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Box 2: Estimating global deaths resulting from homicide

Producing global estimates of the number of deaths resulting from homicide requires a complex procedure of data collection and validation. Discrepancies in the estimates produced at international level - namely between the data provided by countries for the Global Status Report on Violence Prevention 2014, data from UNODC's global studies on homicide (20, 21) and data from WHO's Mortality Database - can originate either during data collection or validation.

Data collection at national level draws on different sources, usually including the criminal justice system (i.e. from police or prosecuting authorities) and civil or vital registration systems, each of which may use different definitions of homicide. Moreover, multiple channels of data collection exist between countries and international organizations, and these can result in differences in data supplied to different organizations. International agencies may also use different procedures to validate country data. Finally, different definitional frameworks can exist, both at national and international level.

The estimates of numbers and rates for deaths resulting from homicide presented in this report, and the proportion of homicides by mechanism (for example, firearm and sharp force), were based on information from several sources. These included data provided by countries from police and vital registration sources; data from UNODC's global studies on homicide (20, 21); and data from WHO's Mortality Database. The estimation process used observed data on homicide rates, in conjunction with regression modelling for countries without sufficient data availability or quality, to compute comparable estimates of homicide rates and numbers across countries. As a result of the estimation process, the estimates will not always match reported criminal justice and vital registration figures…

[UNODC = United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime]

Sources:
20) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2011 Global study
on homicide: trends, contexts, data. Vienna: United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime; 2011.
21) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Global study on
homicide 2013. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime; 2013.

ID: Q8970

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