James A. Mercy, Ph.D.

James A. Mercy, Ph.D.
Special Advisor for Strategic Directions of the Division of Violence Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the CDC

Dr. Mercy is the Special Advisor for Strategic Directions of the Division of Violence Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta in 1982. After his graduation, Dr. Mercy began working at CDC in a newly formed activity to examine violence as a public health problem. Over the past two decades he has played a fundamental role in developing the public health approach to violence.  He has conducted and overseen numerous seminal studies of the epidemiology of youth suicide, family violence, homicide, and firearm injuries. His publications include “Fatal violence among spouses in the United States, 1976 1985" in the American Journal of Public Health; “Firearm injuries: a call for science” in the New England Journal of Medicine; “Public health policy for preventing violence” in Health Affairs; and “Is suicide contagious? A study of the relation between exposure to the suicidal behavior of others and nearly lethal suicide attempts” in the American Journal of Epidemiology.  He also served as a co-editor of the World Report on Violence and Health prepared by the World Health Organization.  Most recently he served on the Editorial Board of the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Study of Violence Against Children.