Colorado Violent Death Reporting System

COLORADO VIOLENT DEATH REPORTING SYSTEM

In 2003, Colorado became one of 17 states to receive funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to participate in the National Violent Death Reporting System.1 This data system collects detailed information on the individuals and circumstances involved in suicides, homicides, deaths of undetermined intent and unintentional firearm-related deaths. Data are collected from a variety of sources including death certificates, coroner reports, law enforcement investigations, the Supplemental Homicide Report, Child Fatality Review, the state crime lab, and newspaper articles. The abstracted data are entered into a standardized electronic database prepared by the CDC and on a daily basis, a de-identified limited subset of the data is submitted to the national database. Data at the state level are available for analysis and local use.

Colorado data are available for 2004-2006. Analysis of the data in the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System shows that the majority of violent deaths in Colorado are suicides. In the three years from 2004 through 2006, 2,352 suicides, 593 homicides, 23 unintentional firearm-related deaths and 47 deaths due to legal intervention were reported.2 More than half of these deaths (52 percent) resulted from the use of a firearm.

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