Black homicide rate skyrocketing in Chicago: Study

A Chicago hospital’s new study shows a skyrocketing black homicide rate in the city from 2005 to 2015.

The Windy City’s homicide rate per 100,000 residents has inched up overall from 17.3 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2005 to 18.8 ten years later. The racial breakdown, however, tells a more troubling story: The homicide rate among black Chicagoans surged from 36.1 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2005 to 46.5 in 2015.

The statistics are found in a report by the Injury Prevention and Research Center at the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

“Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for young people in Chicago,” Karen Sheehan, an emergency room physician and medical director of the Injury Prevention and Research Center, said in a news release, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday. “If we truly want to prevent firearm injuries and death, we will treat this like the public health crisis it is and invest in understanding and addressing this epidemic.”

The study, which also gleaned data from the Chicago Police Department and other sources, notes that homicides have declined overall from the 1990s. The annual number, once above 900, now sits closer to 500.

Homicides for whites dipped from 4.4 per 100,000 in 2005 to 2.7 in 2015.

Latinos homicide rates edged up slightly during the same time frame from 10.5 per 100,000 to 11.3 last year, the Tribune reported.