Is the introduction of violence and injury observatories associated with a reduction of violence in adult populations?: rationale and protocol for a systematic review

The article presents a rationale for a first systematic review protocol that will attempt to assess the impact of violence and injury observatories in contributing to violence prevention. As a diagnostic tool measuring the degree of violence in a defined region, over time an observatory can make it possible to monitor and evaluate the impact of adopted counter-measures. Researchers here present a comprehensive synthesis of studies done on violence and injury observatories, and gather evidence in order to inform research practice and future studies on the effectiveness of the observatories.