Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Dec;104(12):2321-7.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302046. Epub 2014 Oct 16.

Aggressive policing and the mental health of young urban men

Amanda Geller  1 , Jeffrey Fagan, Tom Tyler, Bruce G Link
Affiliations

Aggressive policing and the mental health of young urban men

Amanda Geller et al. Am J Public Health. 2014 Dec.

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1—
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.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Golembeski C, Fullilove R. Criminal (in)justice in the city and its associated health consequences. Am J Public Health. 2005;95(10):1701–1706. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johnson RC, Raphael S. The effects of male incarceration dynamics on acquired immune deficiency syndrome infection rates among African American women and men. J Law Econ. 2009;52(2):251–293.
    1. Western B. Punishment and Inequality in America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; 2006.
    1. Brame R, Turner MG, Paternoster R, Bushway SD. Cumulative prevalence of arrest from ages 8 to 23 in a national sample. Pediatrics. 2012;129(1):21–27. - PubMed
    1. Kubrin CE, Messner SF, Deanne G, McGeever K, Stucky TD. Proactive policing and robbery rates across US cities. Criminology. 2010;48(1):57–97.

Publication types