Police use-of-force is a leading cause of death among young men of color, study says

• A study from the University of Michigan, Rutgers University and Washington University says that police use-of-force is a leading cause of death among all young men, particularly young men of color. 
• The study was based on mortality data reported by the US government and Fatal Encounters, a project founded by Nevada journalist D. Brian Burghart that uses media articles and public records to collect data.
• The study estimated that one in every 1,000 black men is killed by police, and for men overall, one in every 2,000 is killed.
• While black men are twice as likely to be killed than the overall average, Hispanic men are 1.4 times more likely, and Native American men are 1.5 times more likely to be killed.
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Police use-of-force is a leading cause of death among young men, particularly young men of color, according to a new study from the University of Michigan, Rutgers University and Washington University.

Young black men have the highest risk of being killed by police, and are twice more likely to be killed by police than men of other races, according to the study.

The study was based on mortality data reported by the US government and Fatal Encounters, a project founded by Nevada journalist D. Brian Burghart that uses media articles and public records to collect data, according to Click on Detroit.

The study looked at "police-involved" deaths from 2013 and 2017. 

The study estimated that one in every 1,000 black men is killed by police. The study found that for men overall, one in every 2,000 is killed. 

While black men are twice as likely to be killed than average, Hispanic men are 1.4 times more likely, and Native American men are 1.5 times more likely to be killed, Gizmodo reported, citing the data.

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One in every 33,000 women are killed by police the study said.

The risk of being killed by police use-of-force peaks between the ages of 20 and 35, the study found.

Police use-of-force, which includes asphyxiation, beating, use of a chemical agent, instances involving a medical emergency, a Taser, or a gunshot, is the sixth leading cause of death behind accidental death, suicide, homicide, heart disease, and cancer, according to a press release from Rutgers.

"The inequality is not surprising," Frank Edwards, the study's lead author and an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark, said in the release. "All you have to do is turn on the news to see that people of color are at a much greater risk of police-related harm."

The research team hopes its study encourages government entities to establish a national database of police killings.

"The Bureau of Justice Statistics needs to develop a comprehensive system that would track police-related deaths," Edwards said. "We need to increase transparency of police use-of-force if we are going to decrease the number of civilian deaths in this country as a result of these encounters."

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