A new study from Rutgers University-Newark has found that police are a leading cause of death among young — especially Black — men in America today.
The study, which compiled data on police-involved deaths in the U.S., estimated the risks of being killed in a law enforcement encounter by age, race and sex. In short, it found African American men and women, Indigenous men and women and Latino men are the groups with the largest risk of being killed by police in comparison to white people.
The researchers, Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee and Michael Esposito, used data from the National Vital Statistics System’s mortality files and Fatal Encounters, a journalist-run database containing police-involved deaths through public records and news coverage.
