Violence has been recognised officially as a global health issue, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting that 1.6 million people die annually from violence. South Africa’s injury burden is very high, particularly for homicide, which is six times the global average. The idea of an ‘observatory’ has expanded recently, from its origins in astronomy to that of specialised informational repositories and knowledge-building centres, housing cross-referenced databases with advanced analytic and research capacities. This review essay provides information regarding the conceptual framework, historical background and various components of the violence observatory model, as well as evidence of effect. The intention is to provide information to stakeholders within the safety and security cluster by increasing awareness of the observatory models’ application in high violence and injury settings such as South Africa.

中文翻译：

---

暴力与伤害观察站：减少高风险社区伤害负担的工具

暴力已被正式确认为全球健康问题，世界卫生组织（WHO）报告称，每年有160万人死于暴力。南非的伤害负担非常高，尤其是凶杀案，是全球平均水平的六倍。“天文台”的概念最近已经扩展，从天文学的起源扩展到专门的信息存储库和知识建设中心，并建立了具有先进分析和研究能力的交叉引用数据库。这篇评论文章提供有关暴力观察站模型的概念框架，历史背景和各个组成部分的信息，以及效果的证据。