this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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The paper included a decade’s worth of data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention among Black women ages 25 to 44 across 30 states.

In the U.S., Black adult women are six times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts, troubling new data reveals.

A paper published Thursday in The Lancet medical journal analyzed homicide rates of Black women ages 25 to 44 across 30 states. The data was collected between 1999 and 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System.

Homicides were classified in this study as death by shooting, piercing, cutting and other forms of violence. Racial disparities varied among states; in Wisconsin, for example, Black women were 20 times more likely to be killed than white women. Black women living in Midwestern and Northeastern states were also more likely to be killed by a firearm, the paper found.

The study was designed to provide more comprehensive data about homicide rates among Black women and fill in the gaps in the existing literature, said Bernadine Waller, the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral psychiatry research fellow at the Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 8 months ago (6 children)

The article basically says it’s a pattern driven by poverty and population density. We’ve all heard that explanation before, and it seems reasonable.

But imagine you’re a middle class black woman; how are you supposed to interpret this? I imagine those women (and men too) would have very mixed feelings about being painted with such a wide brush. Not that I’d know, but I would love to hear something from their perspective.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (14 children)

Yep. When you normalize for poverty and population density, the crime rates are basically equal. The story isn't about a race, the story is poor people are more likely to be murdered because they can't choose to leave high crime rate areas.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well, it's also about the fact that one race is a lot more likely to be poor than another. Intersectionality and all that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Ignoring that cultural reasons may or may not be part of the picture doesn’t help any one solve the problem either

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Cultural reasons seems a bit vague.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Distrust of police and lack of faith in the justice system is common among the black population of the USA. However, I don't know what that other guy had in mind.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For good reason. Or do you believe that if they report their would-be murderers, the police would act before it’s too late?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I think it is bullshit to pretend that black people living in America have nothing in common with each other, which is what the person I responded to seemed to believe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't black folks in USA have a rather distinct own culture?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Many black people share in a distinct culture which has become known as black culture. It is by no means a requirement.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sure, that is true for any culture.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Right, but the point of the person above is that these women did not necessarily feel that they shared in most or any of black culture just because they were black. Does that need to be taken into account? I honestly do not have an answer there.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Given this (from the grandparent of your comment)...

When you normalize for poverty and population density, the crime rates are basically equal.

..."cultural reasons" seem unlikely.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Well it is somewhat about race as that means more poor people are black and more non-poor people are not black. But yeah it's stupid to make each and every observation of how black people are more affected by X when that X thing is already linked to poverty, instead of focusing on the core issue

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

When you normalize for poverty and population density, the crime rates are basically equal.

I don't disbelieve you, but could you cite a source?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

This paper found that the two largest driving factors were single parent households and lack of a high school education. While they did not find that economic statis was the largest direct factor, it is important to note that things like education (one of the driving factors) increase as poverty declines:

Much of the racial/ethnic homicide differentials in neighborhoods with high concentrations of African-Americans and Hispanics were explained by two of our four measures of social disadvantage, the percent female head of household and the percent persons with less than a high school education

This older paper points the finger at income inequality:

income inequality is the only independent variable with any appreciable explanatory power

This much more recent article also points the finger at inequality:

Inequality predicts homicide rates “better than any other variable”

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Middle class black parents still have to have conversations with their children that middle class white parents do not have to.

The conversations all involve how to handle police and aggressive white people. Basically, how to de-escalate to avoid death.

While I understand the point you're trying to make, I think a lot fewer of them would have issue with this characterization than you would think, partially because they have solidarity with their poorer sisters.

It's easy to have that kind of solidarity when individuals from your community, rich and poor, are constantly targeted simply for the color of your skin.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

A 2020 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that Black and Latina women who experienced intimate partner or sexual violence were two to three times more likely to experience abuse or a neglectful response from law enforcement when reporting the incident. Other reasons that may influence Black women’s police engagement for intimate partner violence included institutional racism, self-blame and stereotypical strength, among others.

“When something happens, you’re supposed to be strong,” Cottman said. “But then when law enforcement respond, you’re not seen as the victim because you’re strong.”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Here, now you don't have to imagine:

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/

This isn't a new thing. Black women have known about this for a long time.

we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American women’s continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation.

we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being “ladylike” and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people.

let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (6 children)

The study was designed to provide more comprehensive data about homicide rates among Black women ...

While researchers did not identify the causes behind the staggering difference.

I wonder if this is because the killers are more likely to be black?

It's kind of simple really either the reason blacks are killed more is because they are poorer in which case race is completely irrelevant. Or blacks get killed more than whites then the reason isn't who's being killed but who's doing the killing. That's the issue that needs addressing.

Investigating the victims seems to be putting the cart before the horse.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

3,200 innocent defendants exonerated in the United States since 1989

There was a total of 21,156 reported homicide cases in the U.S. in 2022

Yea with numbers like that it must be wrongfully convicted. Come on, you're just trying to use stats to prove a wrong point. That's a rounding error

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, why do you think that only the exonerated are innocent? Also, why do you think a black person being exonerated has anything to do with a white person not being convicted at all for the same crime I don't know.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I struggle to believe that anything close to the majority of that 21k somehow ends up being innocent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Again- the question is not how many black people who are found guilty of murder are innocent, it's how many white people are found not guilty for the exact same crime with the same level or greater evidence against the defendant. Or not even charged in the first place.

I have never heard of a black person having affluenza. In fact, the only black person I have ever heard of being let off for spurious reasons like 'affluenza' is OJ Simpson and only because he was super rich and had like 8 high-paid lawyers vs. 2 deputy district attorneys.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Wait until you see those numbers compared to native American women... It's a damn disgrace how women born to the minority population is treated when it comes down to it.

Edit: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6628a1.htm

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (9 children)

IMO the most important variable left out there is economic status. Which is of course correlated, but not caused with or by minority status (due to historical factors).

All of man are the same, but unfortunately our circumstances are not.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Treated by whom? Who kills black women?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Who kills black women?

Usually men do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why would men specifically select women from minorities?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

I don't think it is necessarily "selecting". I'm not exactly sure what it is. But what I found in the article that at least starts to get at your questions is:

Approximately 45% of Black women experienced stalking, physical and sexual violence in their lifetimes, and an estimated 51% of Black female adult homicides were related to intimate partner violence, according to The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Intimate partner violence was also a key contributor of homicide in Black women, Waller’s paper notes.

...Karma Cottman, chief executive officer for Ujima Inc., a resource center focused on ending domestic, sexual and violence within Black communities. Cottman said the statistics are a direct result of economic instability and a large access to firearms.

It goes on to talk about the relationship stresses of economic instability.

Also

Many Black women also have a fear of calling law enforcement, Cottman added, which puts them “at greater risk for experiencing violence” since they do not ask for police intervention until a situation turns deadly.

I'm just passing along relevant bits of the article. I think the above quote would need more study as it strikes me as complex factors interacting. How many black women are killed by the police? I have no idea. How many die as a secondary result of police encounters? How does that compare to not getting police intervention sooner?

A 2020 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that Black and Latina women who experienced intimate partner or sexual violence were two to three times more likely to experience abuse or a neglectful response from law enforcement when reporting the incident.

Finally, what to do?

Waller is calling for more gun legislation and said more work needs to be done to dismantle inequities that directly impact Black women.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Black women are murdered at younger ages and higher rates than other women of colour, including Native American and Alaska Native women.

That’s from the paper referenced in the article. I’m reading through it now.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This study included 31627 homicide deaths (12243 among Black women and 19384 among White women) from 1999 to 2020.

Holy shit America! Wtf???

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Now take into account men are more often killed than women, and this is just women.

UPD. I don't know why I'm being downvoted. I just point out the total numbers are over twice as much. I do not mean to hijack the conversation if that's what it is about.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The paper included a decade’s worth of data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention among Black women ages 25 to 44 across 30 states.

This seems weirdly specific.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

When you do a meta analysis (a study that aggregates and compares the results of existing studies rather than de novo research), you have to work pretty hard to make sure all of the studies you’re using agree with each other on definitions, the ways they aggregate the data, and so on. You have to start out by collecting a large number of papers, and then building around the ones who are most closely aligned with each other on the statistics you’re interested in studying. Some might group ages differently or report causes of death differently in a way that cannot be reconciled in a statistically reliable way.

I was a contributing author on a couple such papers, and I swore never to do them again. They can be very useful, and hopefully this one will be high impact, but as an author they’re an order of magnitude harder to write than just doing a paper on your own work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

If it's a study they probably should be specific. And that probably makes it easier to process too.

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