Young Black males are more at risk of being shot by police officers than their male peers, says a new study published by ProPublica. The survey, released last week, notes that of the 1,217 fatal police shootings between 2010 and 2012, Black teens ages 15-19 were killed by police at a rate of 31.7 per million compared to just 1.47 per million for white males of the same age.
The findings were based on the examination of more than 12,000 police homicides between 1980 and 2012. Says the report:
The Black boys killed can be disturbingly young. There were 41 teens 14 years or younger reported killed by police from 1980 to 2012 ii. 27 of them were black iii; 8 were white iv; 4 were Hispanic v and 1 was Asian vi.
There is no way to determine exactly what puts a person at risk of homicide by police, but University at Albany professor and co-director of the Violence Research Group Colin Loftin says that the race of victims and officers is “certainly relevant”.
“No question, there are all kinds of racial disparities across our criminal justice system,” said Loftin.
Read more of the study here.