The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

4155.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 12:45 PM

Abstract #38971

Police-caused homicides in the United States

Annie Gjelsvik and Sally Zierler, DrPh. Dept. of Community Health, Brown University Schools of Medicine, Box G-A4, Providence, RI 02912, 401-863-9620, annie_gjelsvik@brown.edu

Black men in the United States (US) face a higher risk of police violence victimization relative to White men. An extreme form of police violence is killing by a legal official. This study investigates risk of being killed by a legal official among Black men compared to White men in the US and how racial disparity in risk varies geographically. We determined state-specific 1990-1998 cumulative incidence of death by legal intervention for Black and White men using data from the Vital Statistics System of the Center for Disease Control National Center for Health Statistics. Deaths coded with ICD-9 codes E 970-978 were considered as a killing by a legal official. We used yearly US census gender-, age-, sex- and state-specific population estimates as denominators for cumulative incidence estimates. From 1990-1998 there were 3,070 legal official caused deaths in the US. There were 950 legal intervention deaths among Black men and 1918 legal intervention deaths among White men resulting in an average yearly risk of death by a legal official of 7 per million men for Black men and 2 per million men for White men. Thus from 1990-1998 Black men were three times more likely to be killed by legal officials than White men. Risk varied greatly among the states. Among states with a at least 10,000 Black men in 1990 the relative risk of being killed by a legal official for Black men age 15-29 compared to White men of the same age ranged from 0 to 27.72.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

Keywords: Police Brutality, Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Violence: A Public Health Approach to Prevention

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA