People of colour and young suffer most from police shootings in U.S., life expectancy study shows

People of colour lose more years of lifeto police shootings than white people in the U.S., according toa new study that offers a fresh snapshot of the public healthrepercussions of violent encounters with law enforcement.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from The Counted, awebsite that tracks police shootings using news reports andother sources, to estimate the number of years of life lost bypeople who died in these encounters in 2015 and 2016.

Overall, 1,146 people died in police shootings in 2015 andanother 1,092 died in 2016, the study found. Based on how youngpeople were when they died and their life expectancies at thetime, researchers estimated that combined, these fatalitiesadded up to more than 100,000 years of life lost.

While more than half the of the people who died were white,more than half of the total years of life lost were among peopleof colour and young adults from 25 to 34 years old.

"These deaths are occurring largely among young people whoselife expectancies were long and therefore contributed heavily tothe years of life lost," said lead study author Anthony Bui ofthe David Geffen School of Medicine at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles.

"In particular, those dying at younger ages tend to bepeople of color," Bui said by email.

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People of colour made up about 39 per cent of the populationduring the study period, but accounted for 52 per cent of theyears of life lost, researchers report in the Journal ofEpidemiology and Community Health.

Compared with white people, the number of years of life lostwas greater among American Indian and Alaskan Natives, blacksand Hispanics, but lower among Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Part of the reason for this disparity is that white peoplewho died in shootings tended to be older. Half of the whitepeople killed by police were at least 38 years old, comparedwith 30 years old for black shooting victims and 31 years oldfor Hispanic victims.

The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to provewhether or how race or ethnicity influences the chance of dyingin a police shooting or the number of lost years of liferesulting from these fatalities.

Another limitation of the study is that it only examinedfatal shootings, so it doesn't capture what may be happening innonfatal encounters that might result in significant disabilityor medical problems.

Poverty levels

"The age and racial disparities likely reflect disparitiesin socioeconomic status and poverty levels," said Ziming Xuan, aresearcher at Boston University School of Public Health whowasn't involved in the study.

"Poverty not only puts individuals at greater risk ofphysical and mental health problems, but also limits access toemergency or intensive care in order to recover fromlife-threatening injuries," Xuan said by email.

Implicit racial bias may also play a role, Xuan added.

Police might be more likely to respond to people of colour withdeadly force because they perceive situations with theseindividuals as more life-threatening or think these people maybe more likely to behave aggressively or carry a weapon thanwhite people.

Younger adults and people of colour may also lose more yearsof life to police violence because they have a higher risk ofbeing victims and perpetrators of violent crimes, said AlexPiquero, a researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas whowasn't involved in the study.

"And, because crime, especially interpersonal violence,tends to be over-represented in disadvantaged communities inurban cities, it is likely that police are more likely to patrolthose areas," Piquero said by email. "When these realities arecombined with the fact that minorities are over-represented inresiding in those communities, it sets the stage for the
disproportionality that emerges from the study's findings."