Military-Aged Males in Chicago and Philadelphia are More Likely to Get Killed than US Combat Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq
Jose Nino
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According to a study published by the JAMA Network, military-aged males living in Chicago and Philadelphia are more likely to get killed than American military units deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Researchers at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania helped craft this study which found that military-aged males from “zip codes with the most violence in Chicago and Philadelphia had a notably higher risk of firearm-related death than US military personnel who served during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Although Chicago and Philadelphia were the areas where military-aged males were more likely to get killed in gun-related crimes, the researchers discovered in the study of 129,826 military-aged men living in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia in 2020 and 2021 that “The most violent areas in New York City and Los Angeles were associated with less risk for young adult males than these theaters of war.”
The study observed that in all zip codes surveyed, the “risks were overwhelmingly borne by young adult males from minoritized racial and ethnic groups.”
Ari Hoffman of The Post Millennial noted that one of the researchers Brandon del Pozo, highlighted notable findings from the study in a Twitter thread on December 22, 2022, noting that military-aged men living in “Chicago’s most dangerous zip code faced a risk of firearm-related death over 3x the risk of combat death in Afghanistan, and nearly 4x the risks of Iraq. The death risks were also greater than combat for the 10% most violent zip codes in the city.”
Del Pozo added that “Chicago’s firearm violence led residents to call it ‘Chiraq.'”
In the survey of Philadelphia, del Pozo observed that “military-aged males living in the city’s top 10% most violent zip codes also faced a risk of fatal firearm violence the same or greater than the risks faced by soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan; in some places, the death risk was almost double that of war.”
Del Pozo highlighted that “the results not only held vs. the average risks faced by soldiers deployed to these wars; in Chicago and Philadelphia, military-aged males faced a firearm death risk greater than the combat death risks faced by one of the most heavily-engaged brigade combat teams of Iraq’s surge.”
“Across all the cities we studied, we found young Black and Hispanic men overwhelmingly bore these warlike risks of firearm death and injury,” del Pozo continued. “They were 96% of the victims. In the worst area of Chicago, they faced an annual shooting risk of nearly 6%.”
The researcher also warned that “If high overall murder rates suggest cities where young men may face death risks greater than war, then Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, St Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Memphis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Newark may compare to Chicago and Philadelphia.”
In the study’s concluding remarks, it stated the following:
In this cross-sectional study, for young adult men in several of the communities studied, firearm violence carried morbidity and mortality risks that exceeded those of war.
Unfortunately, such findings only confirm the realities that many people living in America’s most prominent urban centers have long talked about. These areas have become hubs of crime and degeneracy, largely the products of Great Society and a permissive culture that tolerates criminal behavior and other anti-social activities.
Instead of spending billions nation-building abroad, the US needs to re-allocate its resources towards smart law enforcement programs and community programs that crack down on dysfunctional behavior.
For America’s own good, the government needs to start focusing on its domestic affairs instead of fixating on foreign affairs.
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