Open AccessAggression, Escalation, and Other Latent Themes in Legal Intervention Deaths of Non-Hispanic Black and White Men: Results From the 2003‒2017 National Violent Death Reporting System
Author(s) -
Alina Arseniev-Koehler,
Jacob G. Foster,
Vickie M. Mays,
KaiWei Chang,
Susan D. Cochran
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2021.306312
Subject(s) - medicine , injury prevention , ethnic group , poison control , intervention (counseling) , suicide prevention , occupational safety and health , mental health , public health , logistic regression , law enforcement , human factors and ergonomics , demography , psychiatry , medical emergency , nursing , pathology , sociology , anthropology , political science , law
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.