Mortality from homicide among young black men: A new American tragedy

摘要

In 1925, in the classic novel An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser portrayed a poignant yet powerful picture of youthful loneliness in industrial society and of the American mirage that beckons some of the young to disaster. In 2012, an American tragedy of far greater urgency and public health importance is the alarming rate of homicide among young black men. Interracial homicide, whether the victim or the perpetrator is black, is abhorrent. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the health of the general public, the circumstances in which a young black man is both the victim and the perpetrator cause far more premature deaths.