Hospital emergency rooms treated about 1.5 million violent assault injuries a year from 2019 to 2021, mostly involving Black young adults in urban areas, according to new federal data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the visits — which excluded sexual assault — made up 4.4% of all non-fatal injuries treated over the period. The average annual rate was 4.5 assault visits for every 1,000 people and most of the incidents stemmed from unarmed bodily attacks, such as beatings with hands and fists.
The report based its estimates on a sampling of national health surveys, including ambulance data. It offers the most recent government data on the “characteristics and differences” of assault victims who rely on emergency services, said Danielle Davis, a CDC health statistician and the report’s co-author.
“The main findings from this report are that most emergency department visits for assault were by young people aged 25-44, and that there were differences by race,” Ms. Davis told The Washington Times. “Black, non-Hispanic people had the highest rates compared to the other groups.”
Although the CDC did not report ER assault visits for 2016-2018, Ms. Davis said an unpublished analysis “showed there was not a significant difference” in the latest numbers.
Earlier research has shown that Black people use the emergency room “more often than other racial and ethnic groups,” she added.
According to the report, most of the assault victims treated from 2019 to 2021 paid for their hospital visits with public health insurance.
Researchers found that the rate of ER assault visits for every 1,000 people was 13.8 for Blacks, 4.6 for Hispanics, 3.1 for Whites and 1.4 for people of other non-Hispanic races.
The average annual visit rate for assault was higher in urban hospitals (4.9 per 1,000 people) than in non-urban areas (2 visits per 1,000 people) and slightly higher among men (4.9) than women (4.2).
The CDC did not explain why most of the assault victims came from these demographic groups.
Omékongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communication affiliated with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, said the findings confirm patterns of race, poverty and juvenile delinquency in urban areas dating back to World War II.
The report underlines a need for community interventions to reduce violence in “abandoned or severely under-resourced communities,” he added.
“It’s not something innately wrong with the people,” Mr. Dibinga told The Times. “The problem is the conditions these communities live in, and many of these conditions are intentional due to neglect from our so-called leaders.”
Other assault categories included in the CDC report included attacks with various objects, hot steam, explosives, motor vehicles and handguns. However, the CDC did not estimate firearm assaults separately, noting limitations in the sample size.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.