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Gun Violence Affects 1 in 5 Young Black Americans, Report Says

By DNAinfo Staff | November 5, 2015 9:58am | Updated on November 6, 2015 8:48am
 An anti-violence rally is seen in this file photo.
An anti-violence rally is seen in this file photo.
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DNAinfo/ Josh McGhee

HYDE PARK — About one in five African-American young adults say they or someone they know experienced gun violence in the past year, a new report from a University of Chicago-based group says.

That's compared to about 14 percent of Latino millennials and eight percent of whites of the same age group, the Black Youth Project report says. Millennials are identified as being between the ages of 18 and 34.

Being a victim of gun violence can range from being threatened with a weapon to being shot, the report authors say.

Also in the area of weapons, the report, based on national surveys and government data, found:

• In recent years, gun-related homicides among black youth are more than 17 times higher than for white youth and nearly four times higher than for Latinos of the same age group.

• Some 41 percent of black millennials and nearly 43 percent of Latinos said they were “very” or “somewhat” afraid of gun violence. Among white youth, that number was 15.6 percent.

• Both minority groups said they were more concerned about gun control than the rights of gun owners.

"Gun violence is not felt uniformly among young people. Black youth between the ages of 10 and 24 are disproportionate homicide victims. In 2010, roughly 40 out of every 100,000 young people were victims of homicide. About three-quarters of these victims were Black youth," the authors of the report write.

Asked how big of a problem gun violence is in their neighborhood, blacks and hispanics reported higher percentages overall of the threat, though only about 10 percent said it was a "big" problem and 20 percent said it was "somewhat" of a problem. The rest said it was "not much" or "not a problem."

The report also said more than half of African-American millennials said they, or someone they knew, had "experienced harrassment or violence at athe hands of the police." Among Latinos, the number was about one in four; among whites one in three.

Cathy Cohen, chair of the political science department at the U of C, told CBS that other survey data of young blacks also shows that "a majority believe that police in their neighborhood are actually there to protect them, so I think it provides us with more complexity."

The report also looks at education, health and political activity.

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