The new dashboard, which pulls information from the Michigan Violent Death Reporting System (MiVDRS), currently includes data from 2014 through 2020, including statistics and circumstances about homicides, suicides, firearm-related deaths, intimate partner homicides, child deaths and more. The dashboard then visualizes key data points about those deaths throughout the state, including trends in death counts and death rates. It allows users to filter by several variables, including year, manner of death, victim demographics and weapon used to understand specific aspects of violent death. Importantly, the dashboard allows users to sort this data down to the county level.
While this violent death data has been collected in Michigan for several years, it was not widely available to the public until the release of this tool. The dashboard could be used by policymakers, state and local violence and suicide prevention practitioners, public health researchers and community health advocates to identify trends and patterns in violent deaths in the state and their jurisdictions. They can then use this information to develop new policy and practice strategies to prevent future deaths and injuries.
Special thanks to Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, State of Michigan Chief Medical Executive; Patricia K. Smith, M.S., Michigan Department of Health Violence Prevention Program Coordinator; and Nasir Husain, Co-founder of Understory Consulting.
About The Joyce Foundation
Joyce is a nonpartisan, private foundation that invests in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.