Missouri has highest black homicide rate in the country, report finds

African-Americans are far more likely than any other group in America to end up as homicide victims. The statistics are astounding. In 2014 — the most recent year of FBI data available for homicide numbers — blacks accounted for 50 percent of all homicide victims in the United States, despite representing only 13 percent of the total population.

More stats: in 2014, the national homicide rate was 4.19 per 100,000 people. For white people, the number was lower: 2.52 per 100,000.

The homicide rate for blacks? That would be 16.38 per 100,000 — four times the national average. 

And in Missouri, the outlook is even worse. Here, the homicide rate among black victims is twice the already-disturbing national average for black homicide victims: 34.98 per 100,000. That technically makes it the worst state in the country to live if you are black and don’t want to be murdered. And it’s not really even close. The second-worst state, Indiana, has a rate of 29.49 per 100,000. (Of course, the rate is worse in certain neighborhoods in certain cities, like the South Side of Chicago.)

Such are the findings of a recent report from the Violence Policy Center, which analyzed homicide data from 2014 and released its 2017 report earlier this month. As the Riverfront Times notes, Missouri is a perennial contender for the top spot on this list. 

The report also highlights that 87 percent of Missouri’s 250 homicides in 2014 were gun deaths. The average age of the deceased was 29 years old. 

“The devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis that should be a top priority for policymakers to address,” the report concludes. “An important part of ending our nation’s gun violence epidemic will involve reducing homicides in the African-American community. For black victims of homicide, like all victims of homicide, guns — usually handguns — are far and away the number-one murder tool. Successful efforts to reduce America’s black homicide toll, like America’s homicide toll as a whole, must put a focus on reducing access and exposure to firearms.”