Can routinely collected ambulance data about assaults contribute to reduction in community violence?

Ariel, Barak; Weinborn, Cristobal; Boyle, Adrian

doi:10.1136/emermed-2013-203133

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Findings here also suggest that the type of injury, method of death, time of day and day of the week are predictors for alcohol use prior to death, even after adjusting for gender and age differences. These findings, based on multiple data sources on injuries currently provided by death investigation services in São Paulo, show significant potential for guiding public health interventions to reduce violence‐related injuries and informing law enforcement effectiveness against drunk driving , as demonstrated by similar strategies implemented elsewhere.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Alcohol use among fatally injured victims in São Paulo, Brazil: bridging the gap between research and health services in developing countries

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background and aims Most studies reporting alcohol use among fatally injured victims are subject to bias, particularly that related to sample selection and to absence of injury context data. We developed a research method to estimate the prevalence of alcohol consumption and test correlates of alcohol use prior to fatal injuries, using the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil as a model. Design, Setting and Participants Cross-sectional study based on a probability sample of fatally injured adult victims (N=365) autopsied in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Victims were sampled within systematically selected 8-hour sampling blocks, generating a representative sample of fatal injuries occurring during all hours of the day for each day of the week between June 2014 and December 2015. Measurements The presence of alcohol and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) were the primary outcomes evaluated according to victims’ socio-demographic, injury context data (type, day, time and injury place), and criminal history characteristics. Findings Alcohol was detected in 30.1% (CI 95%; 25.6–35.1) of the victims, with a mean BAC level of 0.11% w/v (CI 95%; 0.09–0.13) among alcohol-positive cases. Those black and mixed race presented a higher mean BAC than white victims (p=0.03). Less than one in every six suicides tested positive for alcohol, while almost half of traffic-related casualties were alcohol-positive. Having suffered traffic-related injuries, particularly those involving vehicle crashes, and injuries occurring during weekends and at night were significantly associated with alcohol use before injury (p<0.05). Conclusions Nearly one third of fatal injuries in Sao Paulo were alcohol-related, with traffic accidents showing a greater association with alcohol use than other injuries. The sampling methodology tested here, including the possibility of adding injury context data to improve population-based estimates of alcohol use before fatal injury, was found to be a reliable and lower cost strategy for avoiding biases common in death investigations.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Alcohol use among fatally injured victims in São Paulo, Brazil: bridging the gap between research and health services in developing countries

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Barnes et al 2017). Equally, the body of evidence on different units of targets-individuals, hotspots, facilities, etc.-is growing as well (see Ariel 2018;Ariel et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting the Most Harmful Co-Offenders in Denmark: a Social Network Analysis Approach

Frydensberg

Ariel

Bland

2019

Camb J Evid Based Polic

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research Question Is there a 'power few' individuals in Denmark who, through consistent co-offending, produce the highest frequency of crimes and the most harm to society amongst all co-offenders? Data We analysed official statistics from the Police Crime Case Management System in Denmark on all 437,717 charges for violations of the Danish Criminal Code, the Illegal Substances Act and the Weapons Act, in which co-offender relationships were identified from 2007 to 2017, equal to 28% of the national total of all 1,554,943 such charges filed against both solo offenders and co-offenders in that time period. Methods We cross-referenced charging records with crime harm values taken from the Danish Crime Harm Index to measure the severity of all offence types charged. A social network analysis (SNA) algorithm was applied to the data to test for centrality and identify key co-offenders. Findings While 7.5% of the co-offending population accounted for 50% of crime volume, only 3.6% of the co-offenders accounted for 50% of total crime harm. The latter made up just 1.2% of the overall offender population in Denmark, but contributed 24% of overall harm. Social network analysis of how central that power few was in relation to other cooffenders suggests an even smaller cohort of co-offenders-the 'power few of the power few'-who are disproportionality more connected to other co-offenders. Conclusions The 'power few' phenomenon exists in co-offender networks, with a pronounced concentration of harm caused by a small number of co-offenders. The evidence suggests that targeting co-offenders based on social network analysis can enhance the harm potentially reduced by both investigations and crime prevention strategies.

show abstract

“…Very little data on substance use, particularly for drugs other than alcohol, are available for monitoring systems on injury deaths among low- to middle-income countries (27), but international research in high-income countries has addressed this issue since the 1970’s, with the creation of national systems on drug surveillance (4,28). Enforcement strategies unifying different data sources have been shown to be effective in guiding preventive actions in other cities around the world (7,29,30). In low- to middle-income countries, particularly Brazil, research on this issue continues to gain momentum, but the political instability and the lack of long-term funding limits the integration between research and health services on injuries (31).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol in combination with illicit drugs among fatal injuries in Sao Paulo, Brazil: An epidemiological study on the association between acute substance use and injury

Andreuccetti

Cherpitel

Carvalho

et al. 2018

Injury

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Injury deaths have a major impact on public health systems, particularly in the Latin American region; however, little is known about how different drugs, in combination or not with alcohol, interact with each injury type. We tested an epidemiological protocol for investigating alcohol and other drug acute use among fatally injured victims taking into account the injury context for all injury causes in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Blood alcohol and drug content were fully screened and confirmed following a probability sample selection of decedents (n=365) during 19 consecutive months (2014–2015). Drug concentrations, including benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, and opioids were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Toxicology data were interpreted in combination with injury context retrieved from police records regarding cause, place of injury, and victims’ criminal history. More than half of all fatally injured victims studied were under the influence of at least one substance (55.3%). Alcohol was the leading substance consumed before a fatal injury event (30.1%), followed by cocaine (21.9%) and cannabis (14%). Illicit drug use (cocaine and cannabis) comprised more than two thirds of all drug-related deaths. Alcohol-positive deaths are over-represented among road traffic injuries, while drug-positive deaths are more prevalent among intentional injuries. Victims who had previous criminal convictions were significantly more likely to have used illicit drugs compared to those who did not have a criminal background. We estimated that one in every two fatal injuries in the city of Sao Paulo is associated with acute substance use by the victim. The health burden attributed to alcohol- and drug-related fatal injury events has reached significant higher levels in Latin American cities such as Sao Paulo compared globally.

show abstract

Can routinely collected ambulance data about assaults contribute to reduction in community violence?

Cited by 26 publications

References 15 publications

Alcohol use among fatally injured victims in São Paulo, Brazil: bridging the gap between research and health services in developing countries

Alcohol use among fatally injured victims in São Paulo, Brazil: bridging the gap between research and health services in developing countries

Targeting the Most Harmful Co-Offenders in Denmark: a Social Network Analysis Approach

Alcohol in combination with illicit drugs among fatal injuries in Sao Paulo, Brazil: An epidemiological study on the association between acute substance use and injury

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About