• Peter T Yu, Laura F Goodman, John S Riley, Annie Giron, Yigit S Guner, William H Peranteau, and John Schomberg.
• From the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery (Yu, Goodman, Guner), Children's Hospital of Orange County, Orange, CA.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2024 Feb 1; 238 (2): 226235226-235.

BackgroundLegal intervention trauma (LIT) is defined as injury due to any encounter with law enforcement. This study investigates associations between demographics, violent status, and law enforcement tactics among youth decedents of LIT.Study DesignDecedents of LIT age 26 years or younger were identified using the CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System from 2003 to 2018. Decedents were classified as "violent" if they possessed a weapon, were committing a violent crime, or if law enforcement reported justified use of force. All others were classified as "nonviolent." Law enforcement tactics were stratified into "lethal" (firearm with standard ammunition) or "less lethal" (any other) force. Differences in the racial distribution across these classifications were assessed using chi-square tests of proportions.ResultsWe identified 1,281 youth decedents of LIT; of which, 92.5% met violent criteria. Black youths were less likely than White youths to possess a weapon (71.6% vs 77.4%, p = 0.02) and were not more likely to be committing a violent crime (63.6% vs 60.4%, p = 0.27). They were, however, more likely than White youths to experience force reported as justified by law enforcement (89.9% vs 82.4%, p = 0.002) and to experience exclusively lethal force not preceded by less-lethal tactics (94.0% vs 88.7%, p = 0.001). Among the subset of 85 cases where law enforcement reported justified use of force despite the decedent not possessing a weapon or committing a violent crime, the precipitating event was more often a traffic stop for Black youths than for White youths (28.5% vs 6.66%, p = 0.02).ConclusionsThese findings indicate a racial disparity among youth decedents of LIT.Copyright © 2023 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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