Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25-44 years in the USA, 1999-2020: a cross-sectional time series study.

BACKGROUND: In the USA, Black women aged 25-44 years are disproportionately murdered compared with their White counterparts. Despite ongoing efforts to reduce racial and structural inequities, the result of these efforts remains unclear, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study examined a cross-sectional time series of homicide death rates, by race, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research system. We included data for women aged 25-44 years between 1999 and 2020 among 30 states in the USA. Homicide death was classified using underlying cause and multiple cause of death codes; mortality rates were calculated per 100 000 based on US Census Bureau population sizes. Homicide methods were classified as firearm, cutting or piercing, and other. Firearm homicides were compared with other homicides with logistic regression including covariates of race, time, and their interaction. We report odds ratios and 95% CIs. FINDINGS: In 2020, the homicide rate among Black women was 11·6 per 100 000, compared with 3 per 100 000 among White women. This inequity has persisted over time and is virtually unchanged since 1999. Homicide inequities vary across US states; in 11 states, racial inequities have increased since 1999. The racial inequity was greatest in Wisconsin, where in 2019-20, Black women aged 25-44 years were 20 times more likely to die by homicide than White women. Homicide by firearm is increasing in frequency; women in the USA had 2·44 (95% CI 2·14-2·78) times the odds of homicide involving firearms in 2019-20 compared with 1999-2003. Firearm homicide deaths are disproportionately concentrated among Black women in every region in the USA. INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggest that there is an urgent need to address homicide inequities among Black and White women in the USA. Enacting federal legislation that reduces gun access is a crucial step. Policy makers must address long-standing structural factors that underpin elevated gun violence by implementing sustainable wealth-building opportunities; developing desegregated, mixed income and affordable housing; and increasing green spaces in communities where Black women largely reside. FUNDING: National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health.

Should We Trust You? Strategies to Improve Access to Mental Healthcare to BIPOC Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities have weathered centuries of racism, causing transgenerational mental health consequences and hindering access to quality treatment. In this commentary, we describe the systemic challenges of engaging BIPOC to promote mental health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then describe an initiative that illustrates these strategies, provide recommendations and further readings for academic institutions seeking to partner with community organizations to provide equitable mental health services to populations that have been traditionally overlooked.

"I Have to Fight to Get Out": African American Women Intimate Partner Violence Survivors' Construction of Agency.

African American women survivors of intimate partner violence are disproportionately murdered and help-seeking is a critical variable to examine as it relates to it. There is an urgent need to develop culturally salient interventions that center African American women's ways of knowing. An initial step to doing so is identifying how they employ their sense of individual agency during help-seeking. This paper reflects findings from a study designed to do just that. We conducted 30 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women who self-identified as African American. Constructivist grounded theory methodology was employed. Constructed agency emerged from the data. This nascent theory explicates four phases of African American women survivors' help-seeking: resistance, persistence, rejection, and resignation. Constructed agency provides practitioners and researchers with a theoretical model to examine African American women's nuanced help-seeking efforts when seeking informal supports and interventions from formal providers.

Just Research: Advancing Antiracist and Antioppressive Social Work Research.

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) created its Research Capacity and Development Committee in 2017 to build research capacity across the careers of social work scholars. The committee has initiated multiple conferences and webinar sessions that have increasingly focused on antiracist and antioppressive (ARAO) research, including "Mentorship for Antiracist and Inclusive Research" and "Strategies for Supporting Antiracist Pedagogy & Scholarship: Reimagining Institutional Systems & Structures." This commentary integrates themes from these sessions and other discussions among committee members about strategies to advance ARAO research. Although SSWR board members reviewed and approved this submission, it is not an official statement of SSWR or its board of directors.