Trends in mortality due to legal intervention in the United States, 1979 through 1997.
OBJECTIVE
This report identifies trends in the number and rate of deaths due to law enforcement actions (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, category "legal intervention") in the United States.


METHODS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Compressed Mortality File was used to determine age-, race-, and sex-specific death rates due to legal intervention for the years 1979 through 1997.


RESULTS
Males account for nearly all deaths, with the death rate for Black males several times that of White males. For both Whites and Blacks, the highest rates of death were observed for ages 20 to 34. Death rates declined significantly from 1979 to 1988 and remained stable thereafter.


CONCLUSIONS
While legal intervention is an uncommon cause of death, some subpopulations experience rates of death many times that of the US population as a whole.
Sikora
Andrew G
AG
Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Mulvihill
Michael
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D006708:Homicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D009309:National Center for Health Statistics, U.S.; D016495:Police / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data