Systemic White supremacy: U.S. state policy, policing, discrimination, and suicidality across race and sexual identity

Abstract

Although suicide rates are stable or decreasing among White communities, rates are increasing among Black communities, a trend that appears to be disproportionately affecting Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) people. To understand the structural drivers and mechanisms of these trends, we examined associations between U.S. state-level racist and heterosexist criminal legal policies and policing, discrimination, and suicidality among White and Black, heterosexual and LGBQ, communities. We recruited 5,064 participants in 2021 using online census-driven quota sampling. Structural equation modeling estimated associations from objective indicators of racist and heterosexist criminal legal policies to self-reported police stops, discrimination, and suicidal ideation and behavior. For White heterosexual participants, racist (β = -.22, SE = 0.03, p < .001) and heterosexist (β = -.26, SE = 0.03, p < .001) policies were negatively associated with police stops. For White LGBQ participants, racist and heterosexist policies were not significantly associated with police stops. For Black heterosexual participants, racist (β = .30, SE = 0.11, p = .005), but not heterosexist, policies were positively associated with police stops. For Black LGBQ participants, racist (β = .57, SE = 0.08, p < .001) and heterosexist (β = .65, SE = 0.09, p < .001) policies were positively associated with police stops which, in turn, were positively associated with discrimination and suicidal ideation and behavior. Results provide evidence that racist and heterosexist state policies are linked to policing and interpersonal drivers of suicide inequities and suggest that repealing/preventing oppressive policies should be a suicide prevention imperative. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1.

Suicide Rates by State, Sexual Identity, and Racial Identity

Figure 2.

Mediation path model between state criminal justice policy, police stops, discrimination, and suicide ideation and behavior. Note: *** p≤ .001, ** p ≤ .01, * p ≤ .05 Standardized estimates (STDYX for continuous predictors and STD for binary predictors). This model is adjusted for: age, gender, ethnicity, education, income, military experience, relationship status, whether living with a partner, firearm ownership, essential worker status during COVID-19, past year job loss, neighborhood safety, zip-code level population density.