As the pandemic spread across the United States in 2020, the number of children killed rose precipitously, as did the number of gunshot wounds, scientists in two studies reported Monday.
The majority of the homicides involved black children and almost half involved children from the southern United States. Each of these groups also represented most children brought to children’s hospitals with gunshot wounds.
The U.S. child homicide rate rose about 28% in 2020, from 2.2 per 100,000 in 2019 to 2.8 per 100,000 in 2020, Centers for Disease researchers found. Control and Prevention.
Homicide is the leading cause of death among American children, making the United States an exception among similarly developed countries, where car accidents, cancer, and other illnesses and injuries are leading causes of death.
About half of them are caused by firearms. But young children are more likely to be killed by physical attacks than by firearms, including blows or attacks with sharp objects or blunt instruments.
Firearm homicides have also increased dramatically among children in recent years. In a review of recent firearms data, The New York Times reported last week that firearm homicides involving children have increased more than 73% since 2018 and that the disparity in risk among black children and the others were widening rapidly.
The authors of the new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, said the data highlights a public health concern “deserving immediate attention”. Child homicides are “fundamentally preventable”, but they are becoming “more common, not less”, an accompanying editorial said.
Overall, older children and boys of all ages were more likely to be victims of gun violence than younger children and girls. The CDC found an overall decline in homicide rates among girls, infants, and children under age 6 as well as among white children, Asian or Pacific Islander children, and Northeast children.
Homicides of young children often occur in or near homes and are most often perpetrated by parents and caregivers. Homicides are often linked to child abuse and neglect and reflect stress experienced by families, said Dr. Elinore J. Kaufman, trauma surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and co-author of the editorial accompanying the homicide study.
“I don’t think we’re doing a good job of taking care of families, and it shows,” Dr. Kaufman said in an interview.
Older children and teenagers, on the other hand, were more likely to be killed during altercations with acquaintances or strangers in public places, she noted. Guns are more likely to be implicated in these killings, and the violence reflects deprivation that disproportionately affects black and other communities of color.
The study noted that racial segregation exposes children of color to “concentrated poverty, separate and underfunded education systems, environmental hazards, a lack of safe play spaces, and limited opportunities.”
Researchers have suggested that these inequitable living conditions may play a significant role in persistent disparities in child homicide rates.
As a trauma surgeon, Dr. Kaufman said, she saw the fallout from record-breaking gun violence in Philadelphia, which increased during the pandemic and continued with little evidence of abatement.
“We’re sitting at this high plateau and not seeing much in terms of improvement, except maybe a tiny bit,” Dr. Kaufman said.
The rise in child homicides is part of a decade-long trend. Rates have been rising slowly but steadily since 2013 after declining from 2007 to 2013. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the number soared and 2,058 children aged 17 and under were victims of homicide, compared to 1,611 in 2019.
A research letter written by pediatric surgeons at the University of Utah School of Medicine was also published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. This study compared the number of children entering pediatric hospitals across the country for care over two 21-month periods, one leading up to the pandemic and the other beginning in April 2020 as the pandemic gained traction.
The number of children seeking care for gunshot wounds rose to 2,759 in the second 21-month period from 1,815 in the first period, an increase of just over 50%.
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