MDH recognizes the public health burden that violence has on Maryland communities and the need to prevent this violence and address risk factors before harm occurs. Violence can take many forms, including intimate partner and sexual violence, homicides and suicides, community and youth violence, elder abuse, and child abuse and neglect. Multiple forms of violence can be addressed using a shared risk and protective factor (SRPF) approach:
- Addresses more than one health or quality-of-life outcome at the same time,
- Addresses outcomes at many levels (individual, community, system),
- Emphasizes equity, and
- Engages groups across multiple disciplines, sectors, and communities.
Violence in all its forms has acute and long-term devastating impacts on victims, families, and communities. A public health approach to violence prevention:
- Focuses on identifying and reducing risk factors that make a person or a community more likely to experience violence,
- Encourages increasing factors that are protective against violence,
- Uses data to drive decision-making,
- Encourages cross-sector collaboration, and
- Implements evidence-based strategies in partnership with communities.
The reports, data products, and resources on this page are made available to professionals, communities, and leaders to explore violence issues within Maryland. These data can be used to improve understanding and inform programs and policies that aim to reduce violence and lessen its harms.
Data Products
