Aggressive policing and the mental health of young urban men

Abstract

Objectives: We surveyed young men on their experiences of police encounters and subsequent mental health.

Methods: Between September 2012 and March 2013, we conducted a population-based telephone survey of 1261 young men aged 18 to 26 years in New York City. Respondents reported how many times they were approached by New York Police Department officers, what these encounters entailed, any trauma they attributed to the stops, and their overall anxiety. We analyzed data using cross-sectional regressions.

Results: Participants who reported more police contact also reported more trauma and anxiety symptoms, associations tied to how many stops they reported, the intrusiveness of the encounters, and their perceptions of police fairness.

Conclusions: The intensity of respondent experiences and their associated health risks raise serious concerns, suggesting a need to reevaluate officer interactions with the public. Less invasive tactics are needed for suspects who may display mental health symptoms and to reduce any psychological harms to individuals stopped.

FIGURE 1—

Mental health outcomes by stop intrusion for (a) anxiety and (b) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Survey of Associations Between Police Contact and Mental Health, New York City, September 2012–March 2013. Note. BSI = Brief Symptom Inventory. Scatterplots and lowess smoothed lines are derived from predicted anxiety and PTSD symptoms as a function of stop intrusion, adjusted for race/ethnicity, education, public housing residence, criminal involvement, lifetime stop experience, and perceived procedural justice. Bandwidth = 0.8.