Much of the nation cheered last week when the FBI announced that violent crime in America had fallen since 1991. But according to an analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, young Black males are continuing to be killed (most often by one another) at "an alarming rate."
The foundation studied data from eight major U.S. cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Brooklyn, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. The study found that a 15-year-old Black male, nationally, faces a 2.21 percent probability of being murdered before celebrating his 45th birthday. That figure is nearly 8 times the probability (0.29 percent) for a 15-year-old white male.
However, among the cities studied, the highest probability for a African American 15-year-old being murdered before he reached 45 was in Washington, D.C. (8.5 percent) and the lowest was in Brooklyn, N.Y. (2.0 percent).
Despite the grim news, there was still a ray of hope. In all the cities studied by the Heritage Foundation, except Baltimore, the likelihood of a Black 15-year-old male being murdered before he reached 45 actually declined slightly between 1991 and 1998.
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