Affiliation:
1. Alina Arseniev-Koehler and Jacob Gates Foster are with the Department of Sociology, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Vickie M. Mays is with the Department of Psychology, UCLA, and the Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and the BRITE Center, UCLA. Kai-Wei Chang is with the Department of Computer Science, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Susan D. Cochran is with the Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and...
Abstract
Objectives. To investigate racial/ethnic differences in legal intervention‒related deaths using state-of-the-art topic modeling of law enforcement and coroner text summaries drawn from the 2003–2017 US National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). Methods. Employing advanced topic modeling, we identified 8 topics consistent with dangerousness in death incidents in the NVDRS death narratives written by public health workers (PHWs). Using logistic regression, we then evaluated racial/ethnic differences in PHW-coded variables and narrative topics among 4981 males killed by legal intervention, while adjusting for age, county-level characteristics, and year. Results. Black, as compared with White, decedents were younger and their deaths were less likely to include PHW-coded mental health or substance use histories, weapon use, or positive toxicology for alcohol or psychoactive drugs, but more likely to include “gangs-as-an-incident-precipitant” coding. Topic modeling revealed less frequent thematic representation of “physical aggression” or “escalation” but more of “gangs or criminal networks” among Black versus White decedents. Conclusions. While Black males were more likely to be victims of legal intervention deaths, PHW-coded variables in the NVDRS and death narratives suggest lower threat profiles among Black versus similar White decedents. The source of this greater risk remains undetermined.
Publisher
American Public Health Association
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Cited by
10 articles.
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