TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Racial disparity among youth decedents of legal intervention trauma
JO  - Journal of the American Academy of Surgeons
A1  - Yu, Peter T.
A1  - Goodman, Laura F.
A1  - Riley, John S.
A1  - Giron, Annie
A1  - Guner, Yigit S.
A1  - Peranteau, William H.
A1  - Schomberg, John
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Legal intervention trauma (LIT) is defined as injury due to any encounter with law enforcement. This study investigates associations between demographics, violent status, and law enforcement tactics among youth decedents of LIT. STUDY DESIGN: Decedents of LIT age ≤ 26 years were identified using the CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System from 2003-2018. Decedents were classified as "violent" if they possessed a weapon, were committing a violent crime, or if law enforcement reported justified use of force. All others were classified as "nonviolent." Law enforcement tactics were stratified into "lethal" (firearm with standard ammunition) or "less-lethal" (any other) force. Differences in the racial distribution across these classifications were assessed using chi-square tests of proportions. <br><br>RESULTS: We identified 1281 youth decedents of LIT. 92.5% met violent criteria. African Americans were less likely than Whites to possess a weapon (71.6% vs. 77.4%, p=0.02) and were not more likely to be committing a violent crime (63.6% vs. 60.4%, p=0.27). They were, however, more likely than Whites to experience force reported as justified by law enforcement (89.9% vs. 82.4%, p=0.002) and to experience exclusively lethal force not preceded by less-lethal tactics (94.0% vs. 88.7%, p=0.001). Among the subset of 85 cases where law enforcement reported justified use of force despite the decedent not possessing a weapon or committing a violent crime, the precipitating event was more often a traffic stop for African Americans than for Whites (28.5% vs. 6.66%, p=0.02). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate a racial disparity among youth decedents of LIT.    Keywords: Juvenile Justice <p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1072-7515
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/XCS.0000000000000895
ID  - ref1
ER  -