Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Healthy New Jersey
Violent Death Reporting System (NJVDRS)
The New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System (NJVDRS) was established and is maintained at the NJDOH Center for Health Statistics (CHS) through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This surveillance system links data from multiple sources into a single standardized record of a violent death.
A violent death is defined as a death that results from the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community. NJVDRS includes:
- homicides
- suicides
- deaths resulting from legal intervention (i.e., when individuals are killed by law enforcement personnel in the line of duty)
- unintentional firearm injury deaths
- injury deaths of undetermined intent
What types of data are gathered?
The NJVDRS collects data from a variety of sources, including:
- death certificates
- medical examiner reports
- law enforcement reports
- toxicology and ballistics reports
All violent deaths occurring in New Jersey are included, as are violent deaths of New Jersey residents that occur out-of-state. The system is incident-based, and related victims and suspects are grouped into one incident. NJVDRS staff abstract and code incidents using CDC standard variable definitions to allow for comparable data analysis across multiple participating states.
Click here for more information about injury data and surveillance systems at NJDOH.
Data, Reports, and Presentations
- Injury and Violence Reports and Data Query (NJSHAD)
- Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 2022 (published Jun 2025)
- Suicide in New Jersey, 2010-2017 (Oct 2019)
- Deaths from Suicide among U.S. Veterans and Armed Forces in 16 States, 2010-2014 (Mar 2018)
- Suicide in New Jersey, 2003-2015 (Sep 2017)
- Deaths from Suicide: A Look at 18 States, 2013-2014 (Feb 2017)
- Suicide in New Jersey, 1999-2014 (Apr 2016)
- New Jersey Study Commission on Violence Report (Oct 2015)