Injury Prevention

In 2008, we report on 2007 domestic violence data and present a special supplement on long-awaited findings regarding sentencing in felony domestic violence cases. Approximately 15% of felony domestic violence cases from 2000-2005 statewide were dismissed, 58% of defendants received probation, 27% received a jail or prison sentence and the average sentence served after partial suspensions was 23 months.

This is the first report issued in the state to be derived from the New Mexico Department of Health’s Emergency Department-New Mexico Firearm Injury Surveillance System. In 2000, when gun-related injuries became a reportable condition, the Department of Health established the surveillance system to help track non-fatal injuries caused by guns as a starting point to become better informed on how to prevent them.

The New Mexico Injury Prevention Strategic Plan: 2008-2012 addresses the tremendous toll that injuries exact on our State – the pain and suffering, the cost, often the young lives lost or changed forever. It also acknowledges that change is needed to insure that effective, evidence-based injury prevention strategies are adequately funded and implemented.

This report reflects what incarcerated youth in New Mexico had to say about their own life history related to violence, how incarceration impacted their lives, and what risk and protective factors exist that will prevent or propel them into the adult system of incarceration after they are released from their current commitments. This information was retrieved through the use of focus groups that were designed specifically for this population of incarcerated youth.