People of color are not only dying more often from violence in the United States, they are dying at younger ages from that violence, according to research led by Northeastern University professor Gregory M. Zimmerman. “People of color are doubly victimized by violence,” says Zimmerman, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the university. “Disproportionate burden of violence: Explaining racial and ethnic disparities in potential years of life lost among homicide victims, suicide decedents, and homicide-suicide perpetrators,” was published this month in the open-source journal PLOS One. The study examines data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System, which provided a sample of roughly 100,000 homicide victims, over 230,000 people who died by suicide, and nearly 4,000 murder-suicide perpetrators between 2003 and 2019.
Homicide victims, suicide decedents and homicide-suicide perpetrators were classified into the five major racial and ethnic groups in the United States: Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, African American, Asian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native. Zimmerman and colleagues Daniel Trovato, a doctoral student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern, and Emma E. Fridel, an assistant professor in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, also calculated potential years of life lost for each victim, specific to each racial and ethnic group.
