In a Gallup survey, less than half of Black women in the U.S. (46%) report feeling safe walking alone at night in their neighborhood, compared with about 3 in 4 Black men (75%) and U.S. adults overall (73%).
Among all race and gender subgroups, Black women are the only group in which less than half say they feel safe walking alone.
Black women are also more likely than Black men to report mistreatment due to their race and are less likely than Black men to have confidence they will receive fair, respectful treatment in interactions with law enforcement, according to Gallup.
When interacting with police in their area, 2 in 3 Black women (67%) say they believe they would be treated fairly and with respect — slightly lower than among Black men (72%) and much lower than the national average (86%).
But 1 in 4 Black women reports being treated unfairly in the past 30 days because of race or ethnicity (25%) — a higher rate than the roughly 1 in 5 Black men (19%).
Majority Black neighborhoods have higher gun homicide rates than mostly white neighborhoods of the same socioeconomic status level, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open by University of Pennsylvania professors and students.
Writing in Penn Today, Dee Patel writes: "Utilizing data from the Gun Violence Archive and American Community Survey, the researchers found that, among middle class neighborhoods, the rate of gun homicides is more than four times higher in neighborhoods with mostly Black residents than neighborhoods with mostly white residents. … There are several possible reasons for the disparity, including lack of institutional resources and opportunities caused by racial wealth gaps and underinvestment."
Results of the Gallup survey on Black women are based on a Gallup Panel web study completed by 34,205 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, fielded Sept. 6-22, 2022. The survey was conducted in English. Individuals without internet access were not covered by this study.
For results based on this sample, one can say that the maximum margin of sampling error, which takes into account the design effect from weighting, is plus/minus1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level.
Margins of error for subgroups are higher. For results based on the total sample of 1,060 Black women, the margin of sampling error is plus/minus 6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 772 Black men, the margin of sampling error is plus/minus 7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
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