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Police killings and suicide among Black Americans

Kyriopoulos, I; Vandoros, S; Kawachi, I; (2022) Police killings and suicide among Black Americans. Social Science and Medicine , 305 , Article 114964. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114964. Green open access

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Abstract

Black Americans are killed at higher rates by police than whites. Previous studies have shown that discrimination can lead to suicidal ideation, and that mental health of Black Americans deteriorates after police killings. The objective of this study is to examine whether police killings are associated with an increase in suicide rates amongst Black Americans. Controlling for a number of factors, we found that on months with at least one killing of a Black person by police, there were, on average, 0.0472 additional suicides per 100,000 Black Americans in the U.S. Census Division where the killing occurred. We did not find any spillover effects on other divisions. This association persisted when controlling for gun ownership, and did not seem to be a result of variance in deaths by assault. There was no association between killings of Black Americans and white suicides; white killings and Black suicides; or white killings and white suicides. This study highlights another reason for urgent action on reducing police killings.

Type: Article
Title: Police killings and suicide among Black Americans
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114964
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114964
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).
Keywords: Black mental health, Discrimination, Police killings, Racism, Suicide, Black or African American, Homicide, Humans, Police, Suicidal Ideation, Suicide, United States
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10173520
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