Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
King's College London, London, United Kingdom; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2022 Jul;305:114964. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114964. Epub 2022 Apr 7.
Black Americans are killed at higher rates by police than whites. Previous studies have shown that discrimination can lead to suicidal ideation, and that mental health of Black Americans deteriorates after police killings. The objective of this study is to examine whether police killings are associated with an increase in suicide rates amongst Black Americans. Controlling for a number of factors, we found that on months with at least one killing of a Black person by police, there were, on average, 0.0472 additional suicides per 100,000 Black Americans in the U.S. Census Division where the killing occurred. We did not find any spillover effects on other divisions. This association persisted when controlling for gun ownership, and did not seem to be a result of variance in deaths by assault. There was no association between killings of Black Americans and white suicides; white killings and Black suicides; or white killings and white suicides. This study highlights another reason for urgent action on reducing police killings.
美国黑人被警察杀害的比例高于白人。先前的研究表明，歧视可能导致自杀意念，而美国黑人的心理健康在警察杀人事件后会恶化。本研究的目的是检验警察杀人事件是否与美国黑人自杀率的上升有关。在控制了许多因素后，我们发现，在有至少一起黑人被警察杀害的月份，在美国人口普查区，每 10 万黑人中平均会增加 0.0472 例自杀。我们没有发现对其他分区的溢出效应。在控制枪支拥有量后，这种关联仍然存在，而且似乎不是由攻击致死的差异造成的。美国黑人被杀与白人自杀、白人被杀与黑人自杀、以及白人被杀与白人自杀之间均无关联。本研究强调了迫切需要采取行动减少警察杀人事件的另一个原因。
