A new study showed that the number of murders among black men and teenagers has increased to an alarming rate since 2000. The rate of murders was tracked both for the black people who killed someone and for the black people who were killed. The study was released on Monday by the criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston.

The report also showed that the black teens are the youngest ones to see such an increase in shooting deaths. For example, 426 black men aged between 14 and 17 got killed in gun crimes last year, raising the death toll among black people up to 40% more than in 2000.

In 2007 nearly 964 black men aged 14 to 17 committed shootings which killed their victims. This represented a 38% increase from seven years earlier. Yet, Northeastern criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored the study, stated that these numbers are estimated because not all the crimes are reported.

He added that it didn’t matter whether the rate of homicide in the United States remains at a low level because the same landscape doesn’t fit for the Americans who live in the “violence-infested neighborhoods." Fox also said that regarding the new presidency of the first black American president, Barack Obama, maybe there will be a chance of reinvestment in children and families.

Throughout the nation, the number of crimes and killings decreased last year after it had suffered an alarming increase during 2005 and 2006. Yet, half of the people arrested then were black and 10% of them were aged less than 18.