Child homicides soared in first year of pandemic

Murders of children and adolescents under 18 rose sharply in 2020, federal researchers reported. Black communities have been disproportionately affected.

As the pandemic spread across the United States in 2020, the number of children killed increased dramatically. dizzying, just like the number of injuries by firearms, scientists reported on Monday two studies.

The majority of homicides involved black children and almost half involved children in the southern United States. Each of these groups also represented most of the children brought to pediatric hospitals with gunshot wounds.

The U.S. child homicide rate has increased by about 28% in 2020. , from 2.2 per 100,000 in 2019 to 2.8 per 100,000 in 2020, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease 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 these are caused by firearms. But young children are more likely to be killed by physical attacks than by firearms, including beatings or attacks with sharp objects or blunt instruments.

Gun 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 rapidly widening.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The authors of the new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, said the data highlighted a "deserving public health problem". immediate attention". Child homicides are "fundamentally preventable", but they are becoming "more frequent, not less", said an accompanying editorial.

Overall, older children and boys of all ages were more likely to be victims of gun violence than younger children and girls. The C.D.C. found lower homicide rates among girls, infants, and children under age 6 as well as white children, Asian or Pacific Islander children, and Northeastern children.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Homicides of younger children often occur in or near the home 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 adolescents, on the other hand, were more likely to be killed during altercations with acquaintances or strangers in public places, she said note. Guns are more likely to be involved in these killings, and the violence reflects the deprivation that disproportionately affects black and other communities of color.

The study noted that racial segregation exposed children of color to "concentrated poverty, separate and underfunded education systems, environmental hazards, lack of safe play spaces, and limited opportunities."

Researchers have suggested that such inequitable living conditions may play an important role in persistent disparities in child homicide rates.

As a trauma surgeon, Dr. Kaufman said, she has seen the fallout from record-breaking gun violence in Philadelphia, which has increased during the pandemic and continued with few signs of abating.

"We are sitting at this platea u high and don't see much in terms of improvement except maybe a tiny bit,” Dr. Kaufman said.