Title: Black Homicide Victimization in the United States: An Analysis of 2007 Homicide Data

Publication Date: January 2010

What does it say?

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) analyzed detailed police reports (known as the Supplementary Homicide Reports of the Uniform Crime Report system) to document black homicide victimization for the most recent year available (2007).  The detailed police reports allow analysis, by race, of the relationships between victim and offender and by circumstances.  

The VPC ranked states by black homicide victimization rates and provided detailed statistics for the worst five states: Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, Nevada, and Wisconsin. 

For the year 2007, blacks represented 13 percent of the population yet accounted for 49 percent of all homicide victims.  Eighty-two percent of the 7,387 black homicide victims were killed with guns.  The homicide rate among black male victims is 37.59 per 100,000, while the rate for white male homicide victims is 4.63 per 100,000.

How can I use it?

The Obama Administration has declined to take action to curb gun access by dangerous people ostensibly because national violent crime is at historically low levels.  Use this study to document that gun crime remains a crisis in the black community.

Citation

Langley, Marty, Black Homicide Victimization in the United States: An Analysis of 2007 Homicide Data, Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, January 2010

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