Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Homicide, Deaths of Undetermined Intent, and Legal Intervention: A Comparison of American Indian and Alaska Native Violent Deaths by Multilevel Place of Death

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/44558p09m

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  • Violent deaths are a leading cause of mortality in the United States and research suggests American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are disproportionately impacted compared to all other racial and ethnic groups. Little is known about the true magnitude of the serious threat of violence mortality in AI/AN communities across the United States or differences between separate manners of interpersonal violent death, including homicide, undetermined intent (UD), and legal intervention (LI). Significant gaps in data access, quality, and reliability limit the understanding of contextual and historical factors unique to Indian Country and citizens of Tribal nations, a landscape which research has demonstrated is a key factor in coping and healing from historical and modern violence for AI/AN communities. Guided by a theoretical framework and a historical lens, this dissertation is comprised of two aims to characterize the magnitude of interpersonal violent deaths across the U.S. using multiple levels of place and data from the National Violent Deaths Reporting System (NVDRS). Our first aim examines mortality rates of NVDRS homicide, undetermined intent (UD), and legal intervention (LI) among the AI/AN and compares them to non-Hispanic whites (NHW) in three separate places: 1) national; 2) state; and 3) region. Data were linked to provide a meaningful distinction between deaths that occurred on reservation (or other Tribal) lands (RL) and all other non-Tribal lands (NTL). Violent deaths among the small and only recently disaggregated AI/AN population are further marginalized due to restrictions that precluded rate calculations at the state and regional level, including all AI/AN LIs. In all but one state and all regions where AI/AN violent deaths met reporting standards, rates were higher than NHWs in the same state or region across all manners of death. Multivariable linear regression models showed there was a statistically significant relationship between rates of violent death, race/ethnicity, and place for homicide and UD. The second aim of this dissertation assessed the social, individual, incident, and system-level characteristics of AI/AN homicide, UD, and LI across all available years of NVDRS data (2005-2020) and compared them by place (RL/NTL) to NHWs. Approximately 48% of all AI/AN deaths occurred in places on or near RL, despite estimates from Tribal-serving organizations that only 30%-40% of all AI/AN live on RL. AI/AN victims of homicide, UD, and LI were mostly males, younger, and less educated than NHWs. The predominant weapon type used in all AI/AN violent homicide and LI deaths was a firearm (47.6% and 94.6% respectively) with higher frequencies reported on NTL for homicide (57.6%) and NTL for LI (95.5%). The main weapon type for AI/AN UD was “unknown” (29.4%) compared to poisoning for NHWs (71.5%). Chi square tests of independence were performed to determine associations between autopsy, toxicology, and law enforcement narrative completion by race/ethnicity. AI/AN were slightly more likely to have an autopsy according to NVDRS data, while the odds of a toxicology were lower. The widest disparity was observed for presence of law enforcement narrative, where AI/AN were substantially less likely to have a law enforcement narrative reported for any manner of death, compared to NHWs. Our findings of higher rates of violent death from homicide, UD, and LI across Indian Country compared to NHWs suggest there are significant public health improvements to be made to reach AI/AN communities. Lower age and educational achievement associated with AI/AN decedents indicate socioeconomic factors play a key role in the risk of violent death for AI/AN and existing resources may not sufficiently provide barriers to violence. The glaring issue of restricted access to violence data is an ongoing threat to data sovereignty for Tribal nations and will continue to impede intervention efforts, costing lives and stealing the futures of future generations of AI/ANs. Even with the limitations of our results through policy suppression, this work contributes to our most comprehensive view of violent deaths among AI/AN communities to date and acknowledges that these findings remain an undercount.
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