Inequality in Life Lost to Violence in the United States

This study uses demographic methods to describe ethnoracial and educational inequality in the cumulative risk of homicide death and life lost to violence in the United States. If age-specific homicides rates were to continue at 2018–2019 levels, more than 1 in 19 Black males without a high school diploma would die by homicide. In contrast, 1 in 152 White males without a high school diploma and 1 in 233 Black males with a bachelor's degree would be violently killed. Among Black males without a high school diploma, homicide led to a decrease in life expectancy at ages 15–19 of more than two years. The impact of U.S. violence on the life expectancy of socially marginalized people exceeds the population impact of all causes of death except heart disease and cancer.