Gallagher Catherine A
Department of Public and International Affairs MSN 3F4, Administration of Justice Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2005 Feb;60(3):627-35. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.06.003.
Studies on the risk of intentional re-injury tend to use samples of admissions to hospitals and conclude that prior intentional injury is predictive of future such admissions. Limiting samples to persons receiving medical attention misses the equally important population of those intentionally injured but not receiving medical attention. Approximately 2 million violence-related injuries go medically unevaluated each year in the United States. A significant portion of these are severe. Including this population captures the dark figure of untreated intentional injury and allows for the estimation of the effects of medical intervention on future risk. This paper tests the hypothesis that those going without medical evaluation will have higher odds of injury recurrence than the traditionally studied population of those receiving health care. Data are drawn from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), an ongoing and nationally representative longitudinal survey of households in the United States. The NCVS collects information at the household and person-level, and when victimization is identified through screener questions, at the incident-level. In addition to capturing crime and violence reported to the police and medical professionals, this methodology captures incidents that go unreported and untreated. Controlling for correlates of violence and reinjury, persons injured in violent events receiving medical attention alone, or in combination with police notification, are at substantially lower risk of incurring future violence and violence-related injuries than persons injured but not receiving medical or police attention.
关于故意伤害再发风险的研究往往采用医院收治样本，并得出先前的故意伤害可预测未来此类收治情况的结论。将样本局限于接受医疗救治的人群，会遗漏同样重要的那些虽遭受故意伤害但未接受医疗救治的人群。在美国，每年约有200万与暴力相关的伤害未得到医学评估。其中很大一部分伤势严重。纳入这部分人群能够掌握未治疗的故意伤害的隐匿数据，并有助于评估医疗干预对未来风险的影响。本文检验了这样一个假设：与传统研究的接受医疗保健的人群相比，未接受医学评估的人群受伤复发的几率更高。数据取自美国全国犯罪受害情况调查（NCVS），这是一项持续进行的、具有全国代表性的美国家庭纵向调查。NCVS在家庭和个人层面收集信息，当通过筛选问题确定受害情况时，还在事件层面收集信息。除了记录向警方和医疗专业人员报告的犯罪和暴力行为外，这种方法还能记录未报告和未治疗的事件。在控制暴力和再伤的相关因素后，在暴力事件中仅接受医疗救治或同时通知警方的受伤者，与受伤但未接受医疗或警方关注的人相比，未来遭受暴力及与暴力相关伤害的风险要低得多。
