Announcing CT’s Violent Mortality Dashboard

I am proud to release the Violent Mortality Dashboard, which can be found on the UConn ARMS website. The Dashboard allows users to see where and to whom violent deaths (defined as homicides and suicides) are occurring in Connecticut from 2020-2024.  Users can filter deaths by all violent deaths, gun relevancy (all deaths, gun related deaths, and not gun-related deaths). Deaths can also be filtered by year (2020-2024).  (Project acknowledgements are below.)

While the UConn ARMS Center’s expertise is on gun death and injury, we felt including non-gun deaths was an essential part of this policy conversation.  Therefore, non-gun deaths are also included in the Dashboard.

Every time I explore the Dashboard, I learn something new about Connecticut’s violent deaths.  For example, one of our displays shows the count of deaths by quarter-year.  Below, I have created a side-by-side comparison of Connecticut’s Count of Gun Based Suicides versus the Count of Gun Bases Homicides from 2020-2024.  Each year is further broken down by quarter to capture the seasonality of violent deaths.  I was struck that in 2024 (relative to every year of data collected), gun-based suicides increased in every quarter, while gun-based homicides decreased in every quarter.

Other features allow you to map data, which can be done in a single year or combined years. Below, I have provided a series of 5 maps.  The “2020” map shows the counts and locations of the Connecticut gun-based mortality in 2020, the 2020-2021 map shows this for 2020 and 2021 combined, and so on.  What these maps show is that some communities experience gun-based mortality repeatedly year-over-year, but over this 5-year span, many of our communities experienced gun mortality at least once.  Gun mortality is a statewide problem.

At ARMS, we think that knowing where gun deaths occur and to whom they occur helps us focus our efforts and measure the success of those efforts.  These maps highlight the annual and cumulative impact of violent death on our state and its citizens.

If you have questions or comments about the Dashboard, please send them our way.   We are also happy to partner with other states that are interested in building a similar Dashboard.

Thank you

Kerri M. Raissian, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Public Policy, Director, ARMS

Data from this project come from the Connecticut State Office of Vital Records and were requested using the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s (DPH) Data Request Form for Non-Confidential Data. Data is currently available for 2020-2024. Additional information about Connecticut’s Violent Deaths and be found at The Connecticut Violent Death Reporting System website (CTVDRS).

This project was solely funded by the UConn ARMS Center. This dashboard effort was led by Drs. Kerri Raissian and Jennifer Dineen (UConn ARMS). The Dashboard was created by Dr. Peter Chen and Congcong Miao (UConn Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies). We thank them for their excellent partnership and technical skills.