Aggression, escalation, and other latent themes in legal intervention deaths of non-Hispanic Black and White men: Results from the 2003-2017 NVDRS

Alina Arseniev-Koehler, Jacob Foster, Vickie Mays, Kai-Wei Chang, and Susan Cochran, in American Journal of Public Health, 2021.

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Abstract

Objectives. To investigate racial/ethnic differences in legal intervention-related deaths using state-of-theart 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.

Bib Entry

@inproceedings{arseniev2021aggression,
  title = {Aggression, escalation, and other latent themes in legal intervention deaths of non-Hispanic Black and White men: Results from the 2003-2017 NVDRS},
  author = {Arseniev-Koehler, Alina and Foster, Jacob and Mays, Vickie and Chang, Kai-Wei and Cochran, Susan},
  booktitle = {American Journal of Public Health},
  year = {2021}
}