Almost Half of Homicide Victims in ’05 were Black.

WASHINGTON – Nearly half of the nation’s homicide victims in 2005 were black and the number of black men who were slain is on the rise.

A majority of the black homcide victims were relatively young – between 17 and 29, the Justice Department said in a study release Thursday.

Blacks represented an estimated 13% of the US population in 2005, but were the victims of 49% of all murders and 15% of rapes, assaults and other nonfatal crimes nationwide.

Most of the black homicide victims – 98% – were killed by other black people, the study found. About 85% of the white victims were slain by other white people.