Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call 404-639-7570 or send comments to LeRoy Richardson, at 1600 Clifton Road, MS D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email to omb@cdc.gov.

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Written comments should be received within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) (0920-0607, Expiration 12/31/2015)—Revision—National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

Violence is an important public health problem. In the United States, suicide and homicide are the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, in the 1-34 year old age group. Unfortunately, public health agencies do not know much more about the problem than the numbers and the sex, race, and age of the victims, or information obtainable from the standard death certificate. Death certificates, however, carry no information about key facts necessary for prevention such as the relationship of the victim and suspect and the circumstances of the deaths. Furthermore, death certificates are typically available 20 months after the completion of a single calendar year. Official publications of national violent death rates, e.g. those in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use data that is less than two years old.

Local and Federal criminal justice agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more information about homicides, but they do not routinely collect standardized data about suicides, which are in fact much more common than homicides. The FBI's Supplemental Homicide Report (SHRs) does collect basic information about the victim-suspect relationship and circumstances related to the homicide. SHRs do not link violent deaths that are part of one incident such as homicide-suicides. It also is a voluntary system in which some 10-20 percent of police departments nationwide do not participate.

The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) provides slightly more information than SHRs, but it covers less of the country than SHRs. NIBRS also only provides data regarding homicides. Also, the Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports does provide data that is less than two years old.

CDC requests Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval in order to revise its state-based surveillance system for violent deaths that will provide more detailed and timely information.

The surveillance system captures case record information held by medical examiners/coroners, vital statistics (i.e., death certificates), and law enforcement, including crime labs. Data is collected by each state in the system and entered into a web system administered by CDC. Information is collected from these records about the characteristics of the victims and suspects, the circumstances of the deaths, and the weapons involved. States use standardized data elements and software designed by CDC. Ultimately, this information will guide states in designing, targeting, and evaluating programs that reduce multiple forms of violence.

Neither victim's families nor suspects are contacted to collect this information; it all comes from existing records and is collected by state health department staff or their subcontractors.

The number of hours per death required for the public agencies working with NVDRS states to retrieve and then refile their records is estimated to be 0.5 hours per death. Moving forward, we will no longer include state abstractors' time spent abstracting data in our estimates of public burden for NVDRS because state abstractors are funded by CDC to do this work. This significantly reduces the estimated public burden associated with NVDRS.

The president has submitted plans to fund the expansion of the state-based surveillance system to collect information in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. This revision will allow 32 new state health departments, the health department of the District of Columbia, and 8 territorial governments to be added to the currently funded 18 state health departments, resulting in a total of 59 states and territories to be included in the state-based surveillance system.

Violent deaths include all homicides, suicides, legal interventions, deaths from undetermined causes, and unintentional firearm deaths. The average state will experience approximately 1,000 such deaths each year.

Moving forward, we will no longer include state abstractors' time spent abstracting data in our estimates of public burden for NVDRS because state abstractors are funded by CDC to do this work. This significantly reduces the estimated public burden associated with NVDRS.

There are no costs to respondents other than their time.