Police Use of Lethal Force a Leading Cause of Death in Young Men

Rutgers says that while statistics show that police in the United States kill more people than police in other advanced industrial democracies, researchers say real estimates of how often this occurs are not available. Official data is needed because these violent encounters, they insist, have profound effects on health, neighborhoods, life chances and politics and have resulted in structural inequalities in the United States between people of color and white people.

The study found that the risk of death for each group peaks between the ages of 20 and 35 and declines with age. The highest mortality rate for men is between the ages of 25-29 when police use-of-force is deemed to be one of the leading causes of death, behind accidents – including drug overdoses, motor vehicle traffic death and other accidental fatalities – suicide, other homicides, heart disease and cancer.

Black men face a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police over their lifetime compared to about 1 in 2,000 for men in general and about 1 in 33,000 for women – about 20 times lower than men.

This new research found that American Indian men were 1.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men and American Indian women were about 1.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white women. While Latino men were 1.4 times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts, Latina women were about 1.2 times less likely to be killed than white women. Black women, however, were 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than white women.

Edwards says the study reinforces calls to treat police violence – which has increased by as much as 50 percent since 2008 – as a public health issue. While black people are disproportionately more likely than white people to be killed by police, the rate of white deaths by police have also been increasing in recent years, according to the research.

“The Bureau of Justice Statistics needs to develop a comprehensive system that would track police-related deaths,” said Edwards. ‘’We need to increase transparency of police use-of-force if we are going to decrease the number of civilian deaths in this country as a result of these encounters.”

The study stops short in evaluating current policy but says reforms are needed, including the creation of more social welfare and public health programs, adequate funding of community-based services and restricting the use of armed officers as first responders to mental health and other crisis situations where police killings have taken place.

“Our work should examine how race, gender, age, social class, disability and where someone lives exposes them to this type of violence and death,” Edwards said.