Black Homicide Victimization In The United States

Black Homicide Victimization In The United States ---

HuffingtonPost Josh Sugarmann Executive director, Violence Policy Center
Murder Rate for Black Americans Is Four Times the National Average
Posted: 01/31/2014

Here are a couple of facts that every American should be ashamed of: Black Americans are four times more likely to be murdered than the national average. What's more, four out of five black homicide victims are killed with guns.

Our new Violence Policy Center report, "Black Homicide Victimization in the United States," is a grim reminder that our nation's gun violence epidemic places a disproportionate burden on African Americans. While the daily toll of gun homicide is seen in shopping malls, schools, campuses, movie theaters, and homes across America, African Americans still face the greatest risk of being murdered with a gun.

Our report uses unpublished data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Report. The data for this year's report is from 2011, the most recent year for which such information is available. (continued)

Entire report: http://www.vpc.org/studies/blackhomicide14.pdf

Most Common Weapons
For homicides in which the weapon used could be identified,

82 percent of black victims (4,949 out of 6,022) were shot and killed with guns.
Of these, 77 percent (3,824 victims) were killed with handguns.
There were 644 victims killed with knives or other cutting instruments,
221 victims killed by bodily force, and
130 victims killed by a blunt object. In

comparison, 63 percent of white victims and 73 percent of victims of all races were killed with guns.

United States
There were 6,309 black homicide victims in the United States in 2011.

The homicide rate among black victims in the United States was 17.51 per 100,000 in 2011
.
Age
Four hundred eighty-seven homicide victims (8 percent) were less than 18 years old and
100 victims (2 percent) were 65 years of age or older.
The average age was 30 years old.
Gender Out of 6,309 homicide victims, 5,452 were male, 854 were female, and 3 were of
unknown gender.

Most Common Weapons For homicides in which the weapon used could be identified,
82 percent of victims (4,949 out of 6,022) were shot and killed with guns.
Of these, 77 percent (3,824 victims) were killed with handguns.
There were 868 victims killed with firearms, type not stated.

There were 644 victims killed with knives or other cutting instruments,
221 victims killed by bodily force, and
130 victims killed by a blunt object.

Victim/Offender Relationship For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified,
73 percent of victims (2,138 out of 2,928) were murdered by someone they knew.
Seven hundred ninety victims were killed by strangers.

Circumstance For homicides in which the circumstances could be identified,
70 percent (2,540 out of 3,652) were not related to the commission of any other felony.
 Of these, 58 percent  (1,475 homicides) involved arguments between the victim and the offender

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