The authors of a 2018 study estimate that “[p]olice kill more than 300 [B]lack Americans — at least a quarter of them unarmed — each year in the USA.” Another paper estimates that 1 in 1,000 young Black men are likely to be killed by the police in the U.S. over the course of a lifetime, demonstrating the devastating public health impacts of police violence.

The killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests have brought police use of force into focus once again, with some people making the point that officials should regard police violence as a threat to public health.

The disproportionate rate of police-related deaths among Black Americans is a bitter reality with emotional implications that a medical news article cannot truthfully capture. In fact, examining the data behind these tragedies might seem callous or insensitive, particularly to those who live this reality daily and experience the public health impacts of police violence firsthand.

However, data often provide a bird’s-eye view of a mass phenomenon, and looking at what the evidence shows can help inform better practices and policies on a wider social scale.

In this feature, we examine the evidence behind the public health impacts of police violence.

We ask:

  • How many Black men die as a result of police violence in the U.S.?
  • Where does police violence rank as a cause of death among Black men compared with other causes of death?
  • What are some of the physical and mental health impacts that police violence has on Black men in the U.S.?

We turn to studies and researchers’ opinions in search of answers about the public health impacts of police violence.

In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Frank Edwards, Ph.D. — an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in New Jersey — and colleagues showed that police use of fatal force is a leading cause of death among young Black men.

Edwards and team found that over the course of one’s lifetime, about 1 in every 1,000 Black men are likely to be killed by the police. This risk is at its highest between the ages of 20 and 35 — a peak that is otherwise the same for men and women of all racial and ethnic groups.

Read the full article about the public health impacts of police violence at MedicalNewsToday.