No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference

2026 Michigan Notable Book Winner

An urgent examination of the invisibility of Black women and girls as victims of targeted killings, and the lack of police intervention and media coverage

When Black women and girls are targeted and murdered their cases are often categorized by police officers as “N.H.I.” – “No Humans Involved.” Dehumanized and invisible to the public eye, they are rarely seen as victims. In the United States, Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do not receive an adequate level of urgency.

Utilizing intensive historical research of cases in cities such as Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angles, Cheryl Neely calls attention to serial cases of Black female murder victims and a lack of police action. Neely approaches each case and story with detailed care. Instead of focusing solely on the killings and the murderers, she highlights the lives of the women and girls and their communities that never stopped fighting for justice. With media neglect and police indifference, Neely argues that because law enforcement is less likely to conduct serious investigations into the disappearances and homicides of Black women, they are particularly vulnerable to become victims.

Diving deep into the unseen and unheard, Neely uses personal interviews, court records, media reports, and analytical data to understand how and why Black women are disproportionately more likely to die from homicide in comparison to their white counterpoints. Sounding an urgent alarm, No Human Involved contends that it is time for Black women’s lives to matter not only to their families and communities, but especially to those commissioned to protect them.

Cheryl L. Neely is a sociology professor at Oakland Community College in Royal Oak, Michigan where she teaches courses in Sociology and Criminology. She is the author of You're Dead―So What?: Media, Police, and the Invisibility of Black Women as Victims of Homicide, which won the Gold Medal Midwest Book Award in 2016.