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Damned on Arrival: A Preliminary Study of the Relationship Between Homicide, Emergency Medical Care, and Race

NCJ Number
156900
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Dated: (1995) Pages: 313-323
Author(s)
P J Hanke; J H Gundlach
Date Published
1995
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This analysis tests the notion that race differentials in access to medical care cause differences in homicide and subsequent charging, conviction, and sentencing, by focusing on access to emergency transportation and care of assault victims and the resulting charges of homicide when the victims die.
Abstract
The study examines data drawn from two sources. The first data set comes from the prison records of all 746 female homicide offenders committed to prison in Alabama between 1929 and 1985; the analysis was limited to homicides involving knives or guns. The second data set includes all homicides reported in the 1988 Mortality Detail Files, produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Race refers only to blacks and whites in both data sets. Racial differentials were calculated using expected frequencies for black victims as derived from the base of white homicide victims. The findings show that, for the Alabama prison sample, nearly 25 percent of the black female offenders might not have been imprisoned on homicide charges had their victims received the same transportation and medical care as victims of their white counterparts. In the national homicide sample, there were about 27 percent more deaths of blacks than expected. 3 tables, 3 notes, and 17 references

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