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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this article in Public Health Reports was to present material from some of the speakers who presented work at a symposium sponsored by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration in 1980. This symposium was concerned with homicide among black males.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental design was used for this article. Highlights from the talks of 12 major presentations at the symposium were presented.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Speaker 1: Homicide from the Perspective of the National Center for Health Statistics. The findings from this presentation were as follows. 1) The health problem of homicide was found to be a major cause of death among black males. 2) This homicide rate differed greatly from whites and was reflective of larger differentials in death rates by race. 3) Differentials have been found both by race and gender in life expectancy: for those born in 1977, life expectancy was 70 years for white males, 61.6 years for males from other races, 77.7 years for white females, and 73.1 years for black females. 4) The black population was found to be at greater risk for several causes of death than the white population; risk for the black population for heart disease was 25% higher, for stroke, 50% higher (though the gap has narrowed somewhat), for cancer, 33% higher. 5) Homicide was the most striking difference found in causes of death between whites and blacks that was found with blacks being 6 times as likely to be victims of homicide in 1977 than whites. 6) The difference was even more pronounced for the age group 25-44 years when blacks were almost 8 times as likely to be a victim.
Speaker 2: Perils and Pitfalls of Systems that Collect Data on Homicide. These speakers reviewed the use of FBI and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data for studying homicide. The main source of data, the authors reported, are supplementary homicide reports filed with the FBI by local police departments and are reported in terms of event. Data collected include State and county of death; month and year of death; age, race, and gender of offender and victim; number of victims and offenders; weapon; relationship of victim to offender, and circumstances in the offense. The author reported that the FBI data are helpful in studying black homicide after 1976 because of lack of offender and incident-specific information prior to that. NCHS data, the author said, are comprised of statistical information on deaths based on death certificates. These data include State and county of death, specific date of death, victim's demographic information (age, race, gender), place of residence, weapon, location of assault, whether an autopsy was performed, whether findings from autopsy were used to determine cause of death, and the medical cause of death. Definitions that were included in these data sources were as follows: l) FBI included murder and nonnegligent manslaughter omitting death due to negligence, justifiable homicides, and excusable homicides. 2) NCHS included any violent death committed by one human being against another omitting suicides, accidents, and legal executions. There was a reasonably high level of agreement found between the two sources at the national level, but such differences as FBI use of place of assault and NCHS use of residence created less agreement on smaller units.
Speaker 3: Role of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Homicide. The author argued that the one factor in black homicide that must receive greater priority in research, program planning, and treatment strategies was alcohol and drug abuse. Alcoholism was described as the major health and social problem in the black community; death from alcoholism was 3 times as common for blacks than for whites. Studies, however, were found to be weak both in differences in definition and measurement of the problem. Most studies found that blacks have higher alcoholism rates than whites. In some studies, when education was controlled for, blacks displayed a lower incidence of alcoholism. Drug abuse was also described as a serious problem in the black community. Some researchers found that up to 10% of the total population in some inner-city black communities were addicts, and 200,600 blacks were arrested for drug violations in 1978. Drugs and alcohol were found to be related to homicide in the following ways: 1) 45.5% of the murder cases in 1978 involved alcohol or drugs with easily over half of homicides in some cities being related to drinking. 2) More blacks than whites were victims of alcohol related homicide, particularly those black men between 15 and 30 who were more likely than black women and all whites to be such a victim. 3) Alcohol was found to be a frequent factor in lower-class homicides and rarely in middle- or upper-class homicides. 4) The drug using homicide victim was found to be younger than other homicide victims. 5) Offenders for both drug and non-drug users tended to be friends; for drug users, arguments over drugs or illegal pursuits were the likely circumstances, but for nondrug users, the likely context was a domestic dispute. The author called for studies of racism in terms of stress for blacks that may be translating into alcohol and drug abuse; subsequent development of mental health strategies was suggested. Studies in economic motivation, the author suggested, should include foci in the decline of spiritual institutions, family, and support systems; qualitative as well as quantitative research, and treatment of racism as an important variable in an approach that seeks to understand what is happening within the black community.
Speaker 4: Causal Factors. Black homicide, it was argued, should be considered a situational process meaning that not all homicides can be understood as rational, premeditated, and deliberate; some stem from situational processes that include impulsivity, often rooted in racism. Racism, the author stated, creates a tremendous sense of frustration, anger, and helplessness which is made worse by a system that is either unresponsive or contributes to the wrongs and which is easily translated into displaced aggression toward situations rather than the institution. In general, an "us versus them" motif has been found. Data have shown that both victim and perpetrator of black-on-black homicides tend to be the least successful in operating within the existing economic system and are most exposed to environmental cues for possible homicidal activity. Other factors listed by the author were the prevalence of handguns, disintegration of traditional black support systems, weakening of moral consciousness and sense of identity, and a mental health system characterized as "psychologically inaccessible." Discussion which followed this paper included such items as the increasing segregation of lower class blacks and a special attention to black stresses as areas for further work.
Speaker 5: Toward a Dual Labor-Market Approach to Black-on-Black Homicide. Three popular explanations for the disproportionately high black-on-black homicide rate were listed as the handgun availability model, the deterrence model, and a social structural model. A growing body of research has shown societal variables such as unemployment, dense urban population, and low income as directly associated with black homicide, but social mediators were not isolated from more basic structural causes. The "dual labor-market" approach was advocated to connect employment-related experiences to homicide and to specify how mediation of effects occurs through stress coping, economic hardship, family pressure, opportunities in the community, educational failure, and alcohol and drug abuse. In this approach, employment-related experiences of black males were seen as the root cause of their high rate of homicide. Employment problems of black males were seen as a direct result of their systematic exclusion from jobs in the primary sector and their disproportionate tracking into unstable secondary sector jobs, two separate labor markets in which only the primary sector offers stability, advancement, good working conditions, and high wages. Stress and hardship as the result of overrepresentation in the secondary sector and growing unemployment. No research, the author reported, has linked this economic reality to black-on-black homicide. Direct and indirect effects of the labor market, direct role of alcohol and drugs, role of law enforcement activities, and role of the correctional system were all particular areas listed for study and intervention.
Speaker 6: Social Costs to Families and Communities. Violence was seen as a part of a circle in which violence causes pathological conditions which, in turn, produce more violence; homicidal violence has effects that reach into the lives of victims, perpetrators, families, and the community. In an experiment involving incarcerated black males, black assault victims, and randomly selected control subjects, the author reported these findings. 1) Both experimental groups were less educated, had experienced juvenile detentions, and were more likely to carry guns than controls, though 51% of the control group reported some contact with the law. 2) Assault victims were injured most frequently in fights, showed a high frequency of psychopathic deviancy, demonstrated significant depression, and the possibility of suicide-seeking behavior in the form of aggression combined with the least likelihood of carrying guns. 3) Perpetrators experienced similar problems, although the immediate response was to justify their behavior as not being their fault. 4) Sympathy was often not extended to perpetrators' families who were often in a position to adapt relationships they had previously had with victims' families. 5) The costs of losing a family member at an early age were listed as financial in terms of childbearing, childrearing, the potential for reproduction, and economic productivity and were listed as nonfinancial in terms of intense family grief, especially in the victim's family. The author concluded that schools, churches, and community organizations should be studied in their roles as child socializers. Parents, it was argued, lack confidence in their ability and question their responsibility as parents.
Speaker 7: Toward a Macrocosmic View of Crime in African-American Communities. The author began by stating that in an FBI publication listing factors that contribute to crime, only vague references were made to poverty, racism, and economic privation as possible contributors. Little macrocosmic research has been found on society as a factor that contributes to African-American homicide opting, instead, to place blame on offenders rather than on those conditions which victimize them. Homicide, not among the 10 leading causes of death in white males and females, was found to be fifth among African-American males and ninth among African-American females. Secondary and tertiary prevention, the author argued, is not enough; societal ills must be systematically acknowledged and go beyond its current status as merely a catch phrase in the epidemiology of homicide. Two areas of action (primary prevention) to deal with African-American homicide rates, particularly for males, were suggested by the author. First was aggressive legislation to curb availability of handguns in America, and second was Seminar on African-American Relationships to provide an understanding of the impact of racism on high-risk individuals themselves and on their communities.
Speaker 9: HUD's Crime Prevention Program. HUD, it was reported, administers a 13-agency program of crime prevention targeted toward the largest and most crime-ridden public housing projects around the country. Criminal justice responses, it was argued, deal chiefly with symptoms and not causes. The structural problems of creating full employment, improving the economic position of blacks, and elimination of institutional racism still remain, according to the author. The HUD anti-crime program, as it was described, uses a neighborhood approach. A conceptual framework involving seven areas was developed: l) improvement of the management of the public safety throughout a public housing project, 2) improvement of the physical safety of the buildings and environmental design, 3) organization of the tenants (the core of the program) to fight the crimes they choose, 4) employment of youths, 5) comprehensive special services to reduce crime, 6) improved police protection projects, and 7) cooperative, local-level partnerships in which the city and private sector target resources not only on the public housing project but also on the neighborhood surrounding it. The essence of this program was to facilitate self help; the House of Umoja, a black community-based program in Philadelphia, was discussed as such a successful project.
Speaker 10: Advocacy for Life: Mandates, Models, and Priorities for Prevention. It was argued that black homicide should be given a priority in expending Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) funds because of the large role that alcohol and drug abuse play in black homicide. Existing theories, it was claimed, are compatible with ADAMHA's increasing emphasis on developmental, ecological, and transactional processes; though outside issues are included in such a focus, difficulties in human relationships and interpersonal behavior, as manifested through the victim-offender relationship, were argued to be a centrally mental health issue. It was argued that ADAMHA should lead in establishing a mechanism to coordinate interagency analysis and action on black homicide that must be formal, continuous, and have a policy focus. A well-articulated conceptual model, compatible with community needs and characteristics, was seen as necessary for guidance. The author also advocated use of perpetrators and attempt survivors as sources for hard data. Secondary prevention could, according to the author, be targeted to high risk individuals, and primary prevention (health promotion and homicide prevention) should be targeted to the conditions associated with the high incidence of black homicide. Multiple levels of analysis and action (individual, family, and social institutions) were proposed with dynamic intersections among these dimensions providing a framework for identifying the gaps in data, services, and policies. Primary prevention could incorporate well-targeted and well-evaluated educational interventions; secondary prevention could target service models that would incorporate healthy role modeling, and tertiary prevention needs research to link effects of structure and behavior before programs can even be suggested.
Speaker 11: Homicide Prevention from the Perspective of the Office of Health Promotion. This author discussed how black homicide fits into the Public Health Service and policy changes suggested to deal with this special problem. The model suggested has included these steps: 1) identification of behavioral causes of homicide among blacks, 2) identification and selection of factors affecting the behavioral causes of black homicide into predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing categories for prevention targeting, and 3) health promotion incorporation of health education activities and related political, organizational, and economic intervention.
Speaker 12: Final Observations and Summary. Major needs emerging from the symposium's discussions on black homicide were listed as these: 1) regional, longitudinal studies that would cover one generation, 2) interdisciplinary scientific teams to produce concept papers to help process research data into public policy, 3) development of a life-satisfaction profile of African-Americans, 4) research into critical life stage issues, 5) national database to promote understanding of cultural and criminal behavioral connections in black males, 6) sensitization of human care services to the needs of black people, 7) social planning components in community mental health centers to conduct research on contemporary issues, 8) pressure exerted on training institutions and accrediting bodies for psychology of black experience training, 9) improvements in the quality of education, housing, and the problems of idleness, 10) relocation programs to match people and jobs, 11) research and development centers to examine employment substitutes, 12) abandonment of the black search for white approval at the expense of self, 13) safe neighborhoods, 14) research into the possible connection between prescription drugs and antisocial behavior, 15) research into the kinds of organizations that foster psychosocial satisfaction, 16) research into the effects of all-male and religious schools, and 17) more research into the knowledge of how psychology's technology works with respect to blacks. Proposals for ADAMHA were 1) immediate evaluation of current research, 2) establishment of criteria for and sponsorship of regional demonstration projects, and 3) development of a technical assistance program. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Homicide Offender
KW - Homicide Victim
KW - Male Offender
KW - Male Victim
KW - Male Violence
KW - African American Violence
KW - African American Offender
KW - African American Victim
KW - African American Male
KW - African American Juvenile
KW - African American Adult
KW - Statistical Data
KW - Adult Offender
KW - Adult Victim
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Adult Male
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Intraracial Violence
KW - Black on Black Violence
KW - Sociocultural Factors
KW - Socioeconomic Factors
KW - Racial Factors
KW - Research Methods
KW - Violence Effects
KW - Violence Intervention
KW - Violence Prevention
KW - Health Promotion
KW - Public Health Approach
KW - Alcohol Use Effects
KW - Drug Use Effects
KW - Cost Analysis
KW - Financial Factors
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Prevention Recommendations
KW - Environmental Factors
KW - Intervention Recommendations |