Rates of gun assaults on children roughly doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study that looked at gun deaths and injuries in four major cities. Black children were the most frequent victims.
The analysis from Boston University included a review of gun assaults between March 2020 and December 2021 in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York.
It found that Black children in those cities were 100 times more likely than white children to be victims of fatal and nonfatal shootings. Researchers did not include accidents or incidents of self-harm.
Study author Jonathan Jay, who studies urban health, says the team looked at the rates to understand whether some children were at higher risk than others.
“We knew that children of color, even before the pandemic, were more likely than non-Hispanic white children to be shot, and we also knew that child gun victimization seemed to be increasing during the pandemic,” Jay says.
“But no one had looked at how racial disparities in child victimization might have been changing.”
The researchers are still unpacking pandemic-specific factors that may have driven the change, he says. Some of the influences they’re considering include:
“Stress associated with job losses, school closures, loss of access to certain kinds of services that closed down,” Jay says. “Also, really visible police violence, especially against people of color. Loss of loved ones and family members to COVID-19 virus.”
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Makhi Hemphill, a Black teen in Philadelphia, says he thinks about the threat of gunfire on a regular basis. The…
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