Notes

Guiding Question: What is the leading cause of death for 14-18 year old black teens in America?

Source 1: Compared to other ethnicities, the numbers really stand out. Forty percent of African-American males 15-34 who died were murdered, according to the CDC, compared to just 3.8 percent of white males who died. Overall, 14 percent of all men 15-34 who died in 2011 were murdered.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/24/juan-williams/juan-williams-no-1-cause-death-african-americans-1/

Source 2: The year isn’t over yet, and police have already killed at least 1,023 people — many of whom were unarmed, mentally ill, and people of color. This number comes from The Guardian’s police killings database, but the Killed by Police database counts 1,096 people who have died at the hands of police so far this year. The Washington Post reports that 908 people have been shot and killed by cops. Going by the Guardian’s count, Native Americans and Black people are being killed at the highest rates in the United States. 215 Black Americans have been killed by police so far this year, at a rate of 5.38 deaths per million. February and March were the deadliest months this year, with 100 people killed by police in each month. Police have killed 32 people in December so far.

https://thinkprogress.org/this-is-how-many-people-police-have-killed-so-far-in-2016-7f1aec6b7098#.31s9ipl3r

Source 3: When comparing 2016 to 2015, those that were unarmed (no weapon of any kind) that were killed by police continued to be disproportionately black, relative to the population size. However, the black/white racial discrepancy in the portion of the population compared to the portion of those that were unarmed when killed by police has decreased.

https://thesocietypages.org/toolbox/police-killing-of-blacks/

Source 4: Young black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015, according to the findings of a Guardian study that recorded a final tally of 1,134 deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers this year (2016). Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age.
Paired with official government mortality data, this new finding indicates that about one in every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men

Source 5: (June 2016) Suicides have become the second-leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States, surpassing homicide deaths, which dropped to third on the list (see Figure 1). The teenage suicide rate increased from 8 deaths per 100,000 in 1999 to 8.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2014.
Higher suicide rates are driven in part by changes in the method of suicide. Suffocation, which includes hanging and strangulation, and is highly lethal, increased as a method of suicide. A rising suicide rates among teenage girls is driving the higher overall suicide rate. Despite the rise in suicide, the overall mortality rate among teenagers has fallen from 68.6 deaths per 100,000 in 1999 to 45.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2014, as a result of declining homicide and traffic accident death rates during the past 15 years. Data are based on Population Reference Bureau (PRB)’s analysis of mortality statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2016/suicide-replaces-homicide-second-leading-cause-death-
among-us-teens.aspx

Source 6: WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Gun violence is the leading cause of death among Black children and teens, according to a new report by the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit, child advocacy group. The report titled, “Protect Children, Not Guns 2013,” painted grim picture of the national gun violence epidemic that is the second-leading cause of death among all children ages 1-19. Only car accidents claim the lives of more children and teenagers than guns. According to the report, white children were nearly three times more likely to be killed in a car accident than by a gun. In stark contrast, “Black children and teens were twice as likely to be killed by a gun than to be killed in a car accident.” Examining the most recent data available, the CDF study reported that 18,270 children and teens were killed or injured by guns in 2010.

http://newamericamedia.org/2013/08/gun-violence-leading-cause-of-death-of-black-children.php

Source 7: Suicide and homicide were the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, among teens ages 15 to 19, after unintentional injury, in 2014.[1] Firearms were the instrument of death in 88 percent of teen homicides and 41 percent of teen suicides in 2014.[2] While non-firearm injuries result in death in only one out of every 760 cases, almost one in four youth firearm injuries is fatal.[3] Although other teens are the perpetrators of many of the homicides of teens below age 18, two-thirds of the murderers are eighteen or older.[4] Although school-related homicides receive substantial media attention, in the 2011-12 school year, they accounted for less than two percent of all child homicides.[5] Mood disorders, such as depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disease, are major risk factors for suicide among children and adolescents.[6] One study found that more than 90 percent of children and adolescents who committed suicide had some type of mental disorder.[7] Stressful life events and low levels of communication with parents may also be significant risk factors.[8],[9] Female teens are about twice as likely to attempt suicide; however, males are much more likely to actually commit suicide.[10]

https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/teen-homicide-suicide-and-firearm-deaths/

Source 8: Simply put, Chicago has a massive Black-on-Black murder problem. All of the data below comes from the Chicago Police Department. You can access it here. In 2011, the latest data officially released by the Chicago Police, there were 433 homicides. Of these, just 128 (29%) had a corresponding prosecution. 83.4% of deaths were from shootings, 6.7% stabbings, and 6.5% assaults. Of the 362 firearm homicides, 351 (97%) were from handguns. 77% of all homicide victims had a prior arrest history. Victims were 90% male.
Victims by Age:

Victims by Race:

What stands out the most looking at both charts and knowing that 90% of the victims are male is that a lot of young, Black men are being killed in Chicago. No race comes even close to overall deaths by homicide. Keep in mind that based on 2010 Census numbers, only 33% of Chicago's population was classified as Black.
OFFENDERS
In 2011, there were 140 convicted offenders for the 128 victims with an associated prosecution. There were more offenders than victims because 10.7% of homicides had two offenders and 10.0% had three or more offenders convicted. 87% of all offenders had a prior arrest history. Offenders were 88% male.
Offenders by Age:

Offenders by Race:

The data on offenders also tells a troubling story: Young, Black males are overwhelmingly committing most of the murders. Based on the data on the victims, that means young, Black males are primarily killing other young, Black males. What a terrible situation.

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/chicago-75-murdered-are-black-71-murderers-are-black