Death by homicide, the victim is probably black. By cirrhosis,
the decedent is likely Native American. These stereotypes have
small but clear effects on the racial classifications used to
calculate official vital statistics, according to a new study by
sociologists at the University of Oregon and University of
California, Irvine. When coroners, medical examiners or funeral
directors across the United States fill out death certificates,
it appears the racial classifications they make are influenced
by the decedent's cause of death in ways that reflect long-
running stereotypes about violence and alcoholism, says Aliya
Saperstein, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon.
Saperstein teamed with UC Irvine sociologists Andrew Noymer and
Andrew M. Penner on the study. They found that, for all deaths,
1.1 percent of racial classifications in official statistics
differed from reports by the decedent's next of kin. The
likelihood of discrepancies, however, varies significantly
across the population. Inconsis