Advertisement

Why does the Homicide Report give the race of victims and suspects?

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

In recent days, several readers commenting on different victims have questioned why the Homicide Report includes race. Some have suggested that the blog’s authors must be ignorant or are in need of more education. Frequent readers of the Homicide Report know that from its inception the report gave the race of victims, as well as those suspected and/or convicted of the homicides. It seems worth revisiting the reasons that decision was made.

--Megan Garvey

Advertisement

The following is from the Homicide Report’s FAQ, first published by the blog’s originator, Jill Leovy, in February 2007, the month after the report was launched:

The Homicide Report includes information on race or ethnicity in its weekly lists of homicide victims issued by the Los Angeles County coroner, as well as the name, gender and age of each victim, and the time, place and manner of death. A number of readers have asked why race is included. Some have criticized the practice.

Racial information was once routinely included in news stories about crimes, but in recent decades, newspapers and other media outlets stopped mentioning suspects’ or victims’ race or ethnicity because of public criticism. Newspapers came to embrace the idea that such information is irrelevant to the reporting of crimes, and may unfairly stigmatize racial groups.

The Homicide Report departs from this rule in the interest of presenting the most complete and accurate demographic picture of who is at risk of dying from homicide in Los Angeles County.

Race and ethnicity, like age and gender, are stark predictors of homicide risk. Blacks are vastly more likely to die from homicide than whites, and Latinos somewhat more likely. Black men, in particular, are extraordinarily vulnerable: They are 4% of this country’s population, but, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they represented 35% of homicide victims nationally in 2004. Local numbers mirror these national disparities. According to an analysis for The Times by county health officials of homicide data between 1991 and 2002, Latino men ages 20 to 24 were five times more likely than white men the same age to die, and black men were 16 times more likely.

The Homicide Report recognizes the peril of dehumanizing victims by reducing their lives and deaths to a few scant facts--particularly racial designations which provide only the roughest markers of ancestry and history. But given the magnitude of difference in homicide risk along racial and ethnic lines--and the extremity of suffering which homicide inflicts on subsets of the population--we opt here to present information which lays bare racial and ethnic contours of the problem so conspicuous in the coroner’s data. The goal is to promote understanding, and honor a basic journalistic principle: Tell the truth about who suffers.

Advertisement

As you read The Homicide Report, keep in mind the racial breakdown of the population of Los Angeles County. We are, according to the Census Bureau, about 47% Latino, 29% white, 12% Asian and 9% black. If homicide were distributed equally among racial groups, not quite half the victims included in The Homicide Report’s weekly listings from the coroner would be Latino, and fewer than one in 10 would be black.

Advertisement