1
|
Ward JA, Cepeda JA, Jackson DB, Crifasi CK. Characteristics of Injurious Shootings by Police Along the Urban-Rural Continuum. Am J Prev Med 2024:S0749-3797(24)00180-6. [PMID: 38844147 DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2024.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Much research on shootings by police has focused on urban jurisdictions, but most U.S. law enforcement agencies are not located in cities. Prior research suggests that rates of fatal shootings by police are comparable between urban and nonurban areas. Yet, shooting characteristics across the urban-rural continuum are unknown. This study describes and compares fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by officers in U.S. urban, suburban, and rural areas from 2015 to 2020. METHODS Characteristics of fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by police were abstracted from Gun Violence Archive. In 2023-2024, using ZIP-code and county-based rurality designations, the national distribution, incidence, and characteristics of injurious shootings by police were compared across urban, suburban, and rural areas of the U.S. RESULTS Rates of injurious shootings in rural areas approached or exceeded those of urban rates. As rurality increased, proportionately more injurious shootings involved single responders, sheriffs, or multiple agency types. Across the urban-rural continuum, characteristics of precipitating incidents were similar. Injurious shootings were most frequently preceded by domestic violence incidents, traffic stops, or shots-fired reports; co-occurring behavioral health needs were common. After accounting for local demographic differences, Black, indigenous, and Hispanic residents were injured at higher rates than White residents in all examined areas. CONCLUSIONS Shootings by police represent an overlooked and inequitable source of injury in rural areas. Broadly similar incident characteristics suggest potential for wide-reaching reforms. To prevent injuries, crisis prevention, dispatch, and response systems must assure proportionate rural-area coverage. In addition, legislative prevention and accountability measures should include sheriffs' offices for optimal rural-area impact.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julie A Ward
- Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science, Nashville, Tennessee; Program in Public Policy Studies, Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science, Nashville, Tennessee.
| | - Javier A Cepeda
- Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Dylan B Jackson
- Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Cassandra K Crifasi
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Durgun KX, Sikka N, Davey K, Hood C, Khokhar O, Sadur A, Labine M, Zaslavsky J. Emergency department documentation of legal intervention injuries at a Washington, DC, hospital. Acad Emerg Med 2024. [PMID: 38661226 DOI: 10.1111/acem.14927] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines legal intervention injuries as injuries caused by law enforcement agents in the course of official duties. Public health databases utilize International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), coding to collect these data through the "Y35" family ICD-10 code. Prior studies report deficiencies in public health recording of fatal legal intervention injuries. Few studies have characterized nonfatal injuries. This study investigates emergency department (ED) capture of legal intervention injury diagnostic coding. METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed on ED encounter data from January 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019, at an academic hospital in Washington, DC. Charts were identified using a keyword search program for "police." Chart abstracters reviewed the flagged charts and abstracted those that met injury definition. Primary outcomes included injury severity, patient demographics, and documented ICD-10 codes. One sample proportion testing was performed comparing sample census ED data. RESULTS A total of 340 encounters had sufficient descriptions of legal intervention injuries. A total of 259 had descriptions consistent with the patient specifier of "suspect." Hospital coders recorded 74 charts (28.6%) with the Y35 family legal intervention injury code. A total of 212 involved a Black patient. A total of 122 patients had Medicaid and 94 were uninsured. Black patients made up a higher proportion of individuals in the "suspect identified legal intervention injury" group than the total population (0.819 vs. 0.609, p < 0.01, 95% CI 0.772-0.866). Patients with Medicaid or who were uninsured made up substantial proportions as well (0.471 vs. 0.175, p < 0.01, 95% CI 0.410-0.532 for Medicaid patients and 0.363 vs. 0.155, p < 0.01, 95% CI 0.304-0.424 for the uninsured patients). CONCLUSION A large proportion of nonfatal legal intervention injuries remain unreported. Black and low-income patients are disproportionately affected. More research is needed but benefits from interprofessional data sharing, injury pattern awareness, and diagnostic coding guidance may improve reporting.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Xerxes Durgun
- Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Neal Sikka
- Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Kevin Davey
- Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Colton Hood
- Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Omair Khokhar
- George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Alana Sadur
- George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Monica Labine
- George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Justin Zaslavsky
- George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Nix J. Unveiling the Unseen: Documenting and Analyzing Nonfatal Shootings by Police. Am J Public Health 2024; 114:382-383. [PMID: 38478857 PMCID: PMC10937605 DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2024.307609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Justin Nix
- Justin Nix is a distinguished associate professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where he co-directs the Violence Intervention and Policing Research Lab and coordinates the Master of Arts program. His research centers on policing, with emphasis on legitimacy and police use of force
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Ward JA, Cepeda J, Jackson DB, Johnson O, Webster DW, Crifasi CK. National Burden of Injury and Deaths From Shootings by Police in the United States, 2015‒2020. Am J Public Health 2024; 114:387-397. [PMID: 38478866 PMCID: PMC10937603 DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2023.307560] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Objectives. To describe all-outcome injurious shootings by police and compare characteristics of fatal versus nonfatal injurious shootings nationally. Methods. From July 2021 to April 2023, we manually reviewed publicly available records on all 2015-2020 injurious shootings by US police, identified from Gun Violence Archive. We estimated injury frequency, case fatality rates, and relative odds of death by incident and victim characteristics. Results. A total of 1769 people were injured annually in shootings by police, 55% fatally. When a shooting injury occurred, odds of fatality were 46% higher following dispatched responses than police-initiated responses. Injuries associated with physically threatening or threat-making behaviors, behavioral health needs, and well-being checks were most frequently fatal. Relative to White victims, Black victims were overrepresented but had 35% lower odds of fatal injury when shot. Conclusions. This first multiyear, nationwide analysis of injurious shootings by US police suggests that injury disparities are underestimated by fatal shootings alone. Nonpolicing responses to social needs may prevent future injuries. Public Health Implications. We call for enhanced reporting systems, comprehensive evaluation of emerging reforms, and targeted investment in social services for equitable injury prevention. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(4):387-397. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307560).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julie A Ward
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| | - Javier Cepeda
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| | - Dylan B Jackson
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| | - Odis Johnson
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| | - Daniel W Webster
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| | - Cassandra K Crifasi
- Julie A. Ward is with the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Public Policy Studies, and the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Javier Cepeda is with the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dylan B. Jackson is with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Odis Johnson Jr is with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Daniel W. Webster and Cassandra K. Crifasi are with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Leung-Gagné J. The deadliest local police departments kill 6.91 times more frequently than the least deadly departments, net of risk, in the United States. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgae026. [PMID: 38380060 PMCID: PMC10878363 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024]
Abstract
I use data linking counts of homicides by police to police department (PD) and jurisdiction characteristics to estimate benchmarked (i.e. risk-adjusted) police homicide rates in 2008-2017 among the 711 local PDs serving 50,000 or more residents, a sample with demographics resembling all mid-to-large Census places. The benchmarked rate estimates capture PD deadliness by comparing PDs to peers whose officers face similar risks while adjusting for access to trauma care centers to account for differential mortality from deadly force. Compared to existing estimates, differences in benchmarked estimates are more plausibly attributable to policing differences, speaking to whether the force currently used is necessary to maintain safety and public order. I find that the deadliest PDs kill at 6.91 times the benchmarked rate of the least deadly PDs. If the PDs with above-average deadliness instead killed at average rates for a PD facing similar risks, police homicides would decrease by 34.44%. Reducing deadliness to the lowest observed levels would decrease them by 70.04%. These estimates also indicate the percentage of excess police homicides-those unnecessary for maintaining safety-if the baseline agency is assumed to be optimally deadly. Moreover, PD deadliness has a strong, robust association with White/Black segregation and Western regions. Additionally, Black, Hispanic, foreign-born, lower income, and less educated people are disproportionately exposed to deadlier PDs due to the jurisdictions they reside in. Police violence is an important public health concern that is distributed unevenly across US places, contributing to social disparities that disproportionately harm already marginalized communities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Josh Leung-Gagné
- Center on Poverty & Inequality, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Shjarback JA, Semenza DC, Stansfield R. Firearm availability and police shootings of citizens: a city level analysis of fatal and injurious shootings in California and Florida. Inj Epidemiol 2023; 10:50. [PMID: 37864228 PMCID: PMC10588120 DOI: 10.1186/s40621-023-00466-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND A growing body of research has found a link between firearm availability and police shootings of citizens across place. The problem, however, is that the previous studies on the topic tend to suffer from several limitations: a near exclusive focus on citizen fatalities, units of analysis at the state or county levels, and a variety of proxy measures tapping into community-level firearm access. The current study set out to address these issues by examining the relationship between different forms of firearm availability and both fatal and nonfatal injurious police shootings of citizens at the city level. METHODS More specifically, it merged The Trace's "Missing Pieces" measures of guns reported lost and stolen to police as well as licensed firearms dealers across jurisdictions from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives as proxies for firearm availability with data on police shootings of citizens in California and Florida from California's URSUS system and the Tampa Bay Times' "Why Cops Shoot" database, respectively. Negative binomial regression analyses were performed on a sample of 253 cities across the two states and a sub-sample of cities with licensed firearms dealers. RESULTS Findings uncovered a small positive association between rates of federally licensed guns stores and the number citizens shot by police as well as police shooting incidents while controlling for several community-level measures (e.g., concentrated disadvantage, gun homicide rates). Rates of guns lost or reported stolen were generally not significantly associated with the outcome measures in the multivariate models. CONCLUSIONS Firearm availability is a significant correlate of police shootings. Pooled counts of both citizens shot by police and police shooting incidents are heightened in jurisdictions with higher rates of licensed gun dealers, which may be due to the fact that all firearms sold in the USA first make their way to the public through these mechanisms. Such licensed gun dealers must be appropriately monitored and audited to reduce illicit behavior and prevent firearms from making their way into secondary markets. Addressing access to firearms can be meaningful for a host of gun-related morbidity and mortality outcomes, including police shootings of citizens.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- John A Shjarback
- Department of Law and Justice Studies, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA.
| | - Daniel C Semenza
- Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, NJ, USA
- Department of Urban-Global Public Health, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
- New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Richard Stansfield
- Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, NJ, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Wilkes R, Karimi A. Multi-group data versus dual-side theory: On race contrasts and police-caused homicides. Soc Sci Med 2023; 327:115946. [PMID: 37182296 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Empirical evidence points to a persistent Black-White racial gap in police-caused homicides. Some scholarship treats the gap as denoting criminal justice exposure either in terms of involvement in crime or living in a high-crime context. By contrast, health scholarship typically points to the importance of racism including the attitudes, institutional practices, and overall structures that operate to privilege one group over another. Still, given the demographics of US society, the Black-White racial contrast overlooks the 25% of Americans who are neither Black nor White: Native Americans, Latinos, and Asians. The question of how the groups should be organized vis-a-vis the current Black-White model and theories arises. An answer is not straightforward. There is a rank-ordering to the groups' mortality rates as well as an exponential increase in the number of possible comparisons. In this paper we systematically review the literature on race and police-caused homicide with a particular focus on studies that attempt to move beyond the Black-White model. We find that studies on race and police-caused homicide either make no comparison between the groups, or, alternatively, use a White-non-White, a Black-non-Black, and/or a Black-Native American-Latino vs. White-Asian comparison. We use data on group-specific mortality rates to examine the strengths and limits of each of these practices. The limits are the selection of counterfactual gaps, the selection of smaller gaps, and/or the omission of larger gaps. To address these limits, we propose that a Black-Native American vs. Latino-White-Asian model best captures the higher and lower mortality rates in police-caused homicide data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rima Wilkes
- Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Canada.
| | - Aryan Karimi
- Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Barber C, Cook PJ, Parker ST. The emerging infrastructure of US firearms injury data. Prev Med 2022; 165:107129. [PMID: 35803350 DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Revised: 06/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
For every fatal shooting in the United States, detailed information from reports of coroners or medical examiners, police departments, and other sources is recorded in the National Violent Death Reporting System. There is no such system in place for nonfatal shootings, which far outnumber fatalities. Hospital data systems are in place that could, with some improvements, provide access to reliable local, state and national estimates of firearm injuries. Such estimates are possible because most firearms injuries are treated in hospitals, and hospitals routinely assign "external cause of injury" codes to all injury encounters. Federal health agencies supervise a number of data systems that centralize hospital data. Challenges currently being addressed are public access, timeliness, and accuracy of coding of intent. (Hospitals misclassify many firearm assaults as accidents.) Law enforcement agencies provide detailed data on shootings in criminal circumstances, including shootings that are not treated in a hospital. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) system aggregates data from agencies. The FBI instituted a radical reform of this system beginning in 2021, resulting in a sharp agency participation drop that prevents valid national estimates. The reform requires agencies to report incident-level data instead of summary counts, which is all that was required for the previous 90 years. There are ongoing efforts to increase participation in the new system and restore its former status as the leading source of national crime estimates. In the meantime, data on nonfatal gunshot cases are available from a number of police departments. We discuss additional reforms needed to generate timely, accurate, publicly accessible data from hospitals and police.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Barber
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America.
| | - Philip J Cook
- Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America.
| | - Susan T Parker
- University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States of America.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Schwartz GL, Jahn JL. Disaggregating Asian American and Pacific Islander Risk of Fatal Police Violence. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274745. [PMID: 36215233 PMCID: PMC9550032 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
High rates and racial inequities in U.S. fatal police violence are an urgent area of public health concern and policy attention. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have been described as experiencing low rates of fatal police violence, yet AAPI subgroups vary widely on nearly every demographic and economic metric. Here, we calculate fatal police violence rates by AAPI regional and national/ethnic background, finding wide variation. We compile a list of AAPI people killed in interactions with police in 2013-2019, then use web searches and surname algorithms to identify decedents' backgrounds. Rates are then calculated by combining this numerator data with population denominators from the American Community Survey and fitting Poisson models. Excluding 18% of deaths with missing regional backgrounds, East and South Asian Americans died at a rate of 0.05 and 0.04 deaths per 100,000 (95% CI: 0.04-0.06 and 0.02-0.08), respectively, less than a third of Southeast Asian Americans' rate (0.16, CI: 0.13-0.19). Pacific Islanders suffered higher rates (0.88, CI: 0.65-1.19), on par with Native and Black Americans. More granularly, Southeast Asian American groups displaced by US war in Southeast Asia suffered higher rates than others from the same region. Traditional racial classifications thus obscure high risks of fatal police violence for AAPI subgroups. Disaggregation is needed to improve responses to fatal police violence and its racial/ethnic inequities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel L. Schwartz
- Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - Jaquelyn L. Jahn
- The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Zare H, Meyerson NS, Delgado P, Crifasi C, Spencer M, Gaskin D, Thorpe RJ. How place and race drive the numbers of fatal police shootings in the US: 2015-2020. Prev Med 2022; 161:107132. [PMID: 35787843 DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Place and race are two important predictors of fatal police shootings. We used Mapping Police Violence Data and the Washington Post Fatal Force Data to determine whether a county's deprivation status within communities influences the association between the number of fatal police shootings, and how the number of fatal police shootings differs by race and ethnicity. We categorized counties based on the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to three categories: low-, medium-, and high-SVI. The analytical sample included 3136 US counties between 2015 and 2020; during this time, 5525 individuals were fatally shot by police. Our findings show that place strongly impacts the number of fatal police shootings. Among all fatal shootings, 713 occurred in low-SVI counties, 1660 in middle-SVI, and 3152 in high-SVI counties. Race played a significant role; fatal shooting deaths increased by 2.3 times among White individuals, 9.6 times among Black individuals, and 15 times among Hispanic individuals between low- and high-SVI counties. The results of negative binomial regressions show a strong association between fatal police shootings and the counties' characteristics. In comparison with low-SVI counties, residents in counties with moderate and high-SVI are more likely to be fatally shot by police by 4.9 and 5.8 percentage points. In addressing violence and fatal police shootings, the vulnerability of counties and the population's racial composition play significant roles and need specific attention in addressing systemic racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hossein Zare
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States; University of Maryland Global Campus, Health Services Management, Adelphi, MD 20774, United States.
| | - Nicholas S Meyerson
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
| | - Paul Delgado
- Oklahoma State University -Center for Health Sciences, Office of Medical Student Research, Tulsa, OK 74107, United States
| | - Cassandra Crifasi
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
| | - Michelle Spencer
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
| | - Darrell Gaskin
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
| | - Roland J Thorpe
- Department of Health, Behavior, and Society. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Officer-Involved Shootings and Concealed Carry Weapons Permitting Laws: Analysis of Gun Violence Archive Data, 2014-2020. J Urban Health 2022; 99:373-384. [PMID: 35536393 PMCID: PMC9187822 DOI: 10.1007/s11524-022-00627-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
About 1,000 civilians are killed every year by a law enforcement officer in the USA, more than 90% by firearms. Most civilians who are shot are armed with a firearms. Higher rates of officer-involved shootings (OIS) are positively associated with state-level firearm ownership. Laws relaxing restrictions on civilians carrying concealed firearms (CCW) have been associated with increased violent crime. This study examines associations between CCW laws and OIS. We accessed counts of fatal and nonfatal OIS from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) from 2014-2020 and calculated rates using population estimates. We conducted legal research to identify passage years of CCW laws. We used an augmented synthetic control models with fixed effects to estimate the effect of Permitless CCW law adoption on OIS over fourteen biannual semesters. We calculated an inverse variance weighted average of the overall effect. On average, Permitless CCW adopting states saw a 12.9% increase in the OIS victimization rate or an additional 4 OIS victimizations per year, compared to what would have happened had law adoption not occurred. Lax laws regulating civilian carrying of concealed firearms were associated with higher incidence of OIS. The increase in concealed gun carrying frequency associated with these laws may influence the perceived threat of danger faced by law enforcement. This could contribute to higher rates of OIS.
Collapse
|