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Abstract
Background Missing and Murdered Indigenous People is a historic and contemporary issue that has gained national attention. In 2021, homicide was the eighth leading cause of death among American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) persons aged between 1 and 54 years old, and homicide is the sixth leading cause of death among all AIAN males aged 1–54 years old.
Aim These data will build knowledge around AIAN homicides and to identify circumstances that can aid in comprehensive Missing and Murdered Indigenous People prevention efforts.
Methods AIAN homicide data came from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System, a state/jurisdiction-based surveillance system that collects detailed information about characteristics and circumstances of violent deaths. We examined data from 2003 to 2020 (all available years) from participating states/jurisdictions. We also assessed sociodemographic characteristics of victims and suspects, incident characteristics and differences across dichotomised urban/rural status. The study was conducted in 2022.
Results The National Violent Death Reporting System provided data on 2959 AIAN homicides from 2003 to 2020 (54.2% urban and 45.8% rural). Significant differences based on the two locations included type of weapon used, the location of the injury, race of the primary suspect, the victim’s relationship to the suspect and select circumstances precipitating the homicide including crimes precipitating the homicide and homicides stemming from intimate partner violence.
Outcomes These findings provide crucial information to strengthen public health efforts for prevention.
- Rural
- Urban
- Indigenous
- Epidemiology
- Violence
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. NVDRS data used are available via approved application to use the NVDRS Restricted Access Database (RAD). More details are available online: https://www.cdc.gov/nvdrs/about/nvdrs-data-access.html.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. NVDRS data used are available via approved application to use the NVDRS Restricted Access Database (RAD). More details are available online: https://www.cdc.gov/nvdrs/about/nvdrs-data-access.html.
Footnotes
Contributors All authors took part in conceptualisation, data interpretation and manuscript development. DTC led data analysis and was verified by CJB. Through conceptualisation to early manuscript development, LMMK completed work as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, and DES completed work as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, Office of Tribal Affairs and Strategic Alliances. No artificial intelligence software was used in the development of this work. LMMK serves as guarantor for this work and accepts full responsibility for the work.
Funding DTC completed coding and a first draft of the manuscript as part of an Injury Control Research Center 2022 summer internship affiliated with the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center (UI IPRC), Grant #R49CE003095 under NOFO RFA-CE-19-001.
Disclaimer The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry or the University of Iowa.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.