In today’s class, we analyzed the age distribution of individuals killed by police with a specific focus on the differences between Black and White individuals, using Mathematica for our analysis and planning a Python equivalent for future sessions.
Here are the outcomes of our findings:
Overall Age Distribution:
The youngest individual was 6 years old and the oldest was 91 years old. The average age came out to be 37.1 years with the median at 35 years, and the standard deviation was 13 years. The age distribution showed a slight right skewness of 0.73, suggesting a younger age trend, and a kurtosis close to 3, which indicates a distribution that resembles the normal curve.
Age Distribution for Black Individuals:
The ages ranged from 13 to 88 years, with an average age of 32.7 years and a median of 31 years. The standard deviation for this group was 11.4 years. This distribution displayed a right skewness of approximately 1 and a kurtosis of 3.9, hinting at a slightly more pronounced tail in the distribution.
Age Distribution for White Individuals:
The age range for this group was from 6 to 91 years, with an average age of 40 years and a median of 38 years. The standard deviation here was 13.3 years. Similar to the overall distribution, this group’s age pattern was slightly right-skewed with a skewness value of 0.53 and had a kurtosis of 2.86, suggesting a distribution with a less pronounced peak and tails.
Comparison Between Black and White Individuals:
There was an average age difference of approximately 7.3 years, with White individuals being older on average compared to Black individuals. A Monte Carlo simulation confirmed that the age difference was statistically significant, indicating a low likelihood that this result is due to chance. The effect size, measured by Cohen’s d, was calculated to be 0.58, indicating that the age difference is of a medium magnitude.
The session provided a detailed examination of age distributions within the context of police shootings, highlighting notable differences between racial groups and the general age tendencies within the data.