*A new study examining how minors are victims of police violence has found that Black children were six times more likely to be fatally shot by law enforcement than their white peers.
The study examined cases over a 16-year period, and the results were published in the journal Pediatrics. Hispanic children were three times more likely to be shot to death than White children, the study found, per CNN.
Here’s more from the outlet:Â
Goyal and her team found that 140 adolescents died from police intervention from 2003 to 2018, and of those cases, 131 involved firearms, the study states. The vast majority of the victims — roughly 93% — were male, with an average age of 16 years.
During this same period, 6,512 adults were fatally shot by police, and Black and Hispanic adults had the highest mortality rates compared with White adults, according to Children’s National.
“The results are not surprising, but that doesn’t take away from the tragedy of these results,” lead researcher Dr. Monika K. Goyal told CNN. “When we see that this extends to children, it makes this issue even more tragic.”
READ MORE:Â Ben Crump Releases Statement on Bodycam Footage of Police Killing of Joshua Feast / WATCH
Black children were six times more likely to be shot to death by the police than their White peers over a 16-year period, according to a new study.
Hispanic children were three times more likely to be shot to death than White children, the study found. https://t.co/RuRDEMZsCH
— CNN (@CNN) December 21, 2020
“Although these numbers are small, Dr. Goyal notes that there’s a potential rippling effect, with the death of each child having wide-ranging impact on an entire community,” according to a news release from Children’s National, where Goyal is associate division chief of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Services and director of Academic Affairs and Research.
“These findings are likely an underestimate of the true toll,” Goyal told CNN. “This (rate) did not include children who were shot but didn’t die.”
“We had a sufficient enough sample size to show that there were large differences, when we compared deaths of children due to police shootings between Black and White children and White to Hispanic children — we were appropriately powered,” she added. “We would have seen those same results over a larger time period.”
Goyal hopes the study will foster tangible change when it comes to police relations with the Black community.
“Our country is truly reckoning with the differential use of police force in communities of color,” Goyal said. “These disparities extend to youth, and my hope is that this data is a call to action to start engaging in that hard work to truly understand the policies that exacerbate these disparities.”
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