Psychophysiological and affective reactivity to vicarious police violence

Maintaining disorder: estimating the association between policing and psychiatric hospitalization among youth in New York City by neighborhood racial composition, 2006-2014

PURPOSE

To assess whether neighborhood-level measures of policing are spatio-temporally associated with psychiatric hospialization among adolescents and young adults in New York City, and whether this association varies by neighborhood racial composition.

METHODS

We derived population-based measures of policing from the New York City Police Department (NYPD), psychiatric hospitalization from Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) data, and socio-demographic data from the American Community Survey (ACS), aggregated by month and ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) from 2006 to 2014. Multi-level negative binomial regression models assessed hospitalization-time of youth aged 10-24 as the dependent variable and the rate of policing events as the primary independent variable, adjusting for neighborhood poverty, unemployment, and educational attainment. Multiplicative interaction was assessed between policing and tertiles of the percentage of Black residents.

RESULTS

A total of 11,900,192 policing incidents and 2,118,481 person-days of hospitalization were aggregated to 19,440 ZCTA-months. After adjusting for neighborhood-level sociodemographic characteristics, an increase in one policing incident per 1,000 residents was associated with a 0.3% increase in the rate of youth psychiatric hospitalization time (IRR 1.003 [1.001-1.005]). Neighborhood racial composition modified this effect; not only was the rate of psychiatric hospitalization and policing higher in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of Black residents, but the association between these was also significantly higher in neighorhoods with a larger share of Black residents compared with predominantly non-Black neighborhoods.

CONCLUSION

Neighborhoods experiencing higher rates of policing during the study period experienced higher burdens of psychiatric hospitalization among adolescent and young adult residents. This association was larger in neighborhoods of color which have been disproportionately targeted by "hot spot" and order-maintenance policing practices and policies.

Police Violence Exposure and Traumatic Stress Among Youth: A Systematic Review

Youth exposure to violence increases the risk of poor mental and physical health outcomes lasting into adulthood. Traumatic stress is an outcome of particular concern as the physiological stress response impacts the developing brain. Recently, youth exposure to police violence has been conceptualized as an adverse childhood experience that may impact traumatic stress. To examine this possibility, we conducted a systematic review, drawing upon five databases to gather the existing quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed research on exposure to police violence and traumatic stress in youth. Searches yielded 27 relevant articles utilizing various study designs: thirteen quantitative, thirteen qualitative, and one mixed method. Twenty-six of the 27 studies found evidence of a relationship between police violence exposure and traumatic stress in youth. Police violence was associated with youth traumatic stress across three types of exposures: direct, vicarious, and anticipated. Studies also explored differential impacts by race and gender. The review revealed current gaps in the literature, such as a lack of data on select sociodemographic groups (e.g., rural youth, LGBTQ+ youth) and potential protective factors (e.g., resilience and school connectedness). In line with the findings, we put forth a research agenda as well as policy and practice recommendations to improve police interactions with youth and mental health services for youth who have been exposed to police violence. Recommendations include improving systematic data collection to track all types of police violence exposure, creating spaces for positive police interactions with youth, and training mental health practitioners to support youth exposed to police violence.

Police killings of unarmed Black persons and suicides among Black youth in the US: A national time-series analysis

INTRODUCTION

Suicide deaths among Black youth in the US have increased rapidly over the past decade. Direct or vicarious racial trauma experienced through exposure to police brutality may underlie these concerning trends.

METHODS

We obtained nationally aggregated monthly counts of suicides for non-Hispanic Black and White youth (age ≤ 24 years) and adults (age > 24 years) from the National Mortality Vital Statistics restricted-use data files provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2013 to 2019. Monthly counts of Black youth suicides constituted our main outcome. We defined our exposure as the monthly counts of police killings of unarmed Black persons over 84 months (2013 to 2019), retrieved from the Mapping Police Violence database. We used ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average) time-series analyses to examine whether Black youth suicides increased within 0 to 3 months following police killings of unarmed Black persons, controlling for autocorrelation and corresponding series of White youth suicides.

RESULTS

Suicides among Black youth increase by ∼1 count three months following an increase in police killings of unarmed Black persons (exposure lag 0 coefficient = 0.16, p > 0.05; exposure lag 1 coefficient = -0.70, p > 0.05; exposure lag 2 coefficient = -0.54, p > 0.05; exposure lag 3 coefficient = 0.95, p < 0.05). The observed increase in suicides concentrates among Black male youth (exposure lag 3 coefficient = 0.88, p < 0.05).

Black Americans suppress emotions when prejudice is believed to stem from shared ignorance

Past research examining lay theories of the origins of prejudice has focused on white Americans and has not considered how Black Americans' lay theories of prejudice may impact emotion regulation following discrimination. Across three samples of Black Americans (N = 419), the present research examined relationships between endorsement of two lay theories of prejudice origins (1, beliefs that prejudice stems from shared social ignorance and 2, that prejudice stems from malice). Stronger beliefs that prejudice stems from shared ignorance were associated with greater expression suppression following experiences of racial discrimination (studies 1b and 2), which was, in turn, associated with psychological distress (study 2). By centering the beliefs and experiences of Black Americans in response to discrimination events, the present research has implications for understanding how emotion regulation following racial discrimination is impacted by marginalized groups' conceptualizations of prejudice. Future research should investigate how these factors impact health disparities.

Understanding the impact of police brutality on Black sexually minoritized men

Young Black gay, bisexual, and other sexually minoritized men (SMM) face high levels of police brutality and other negative, unwarranted encounters with the police. Such interactions have known health consequences. The purpose of this study was to understand the health, mental health, and social consequences of police brutality experienced by young Black SMM. We conducted in-depth interviews with 31 Black, cisgender men, ages of 16-30 and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Our primary results are summarized in four themes: 1) Police brutality is built into the system and diminishes trust; 2) Videos and social media make visible violence that has long existed; 3) Police brutality contributes to anxiety and other psychosocial effects; and 4) Violence reduces feelings of safety and contributes to avoidance of police. Our results highlight the direct and vicarious police brutality participants are subjected to and sheds light on the effects of such violence on trust, perceived safety, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Results from this study contribute to the needed public health conversation around police brutality against Black men, specifically shedding light on the experiences of Black SMM.

"We (still) charge genocide": A systematic review and synthesis of the direct and indirect health consequences of police violence in the United States

Building on historical and contemporary efforts to eliminate police and other forms of state violence, and on the understanding that police violence is a social determinant of health, we conducted a systematic review in which we synthesize the existing literature around 1) racial disparities in police violence; 2) health impacts of direct exposure to police violence; and 3) health impacts of indirect exposure to police violence. We screened 336 studies and excluded 246, due to not meeting our inclusion criteria. Forty-eight additional studies were excluded during the full text review, resulting in a study sample size of 42 studies. Our review showed that Black people in the US are far more likely than white people to experience a range of forms of police violence: from fatal and nonfatal shootings, to assault and psychological violence. Exposure to police violence increases risk of multiple adverse health outcomes. Moreover, police violence may operate as a vicarious and ecological exposure, producing consequences beyond those directly assaulted. In order to successfully eliminate police violence, scholars must work in alignment with social justice movements.

"They Just Keep Coming": A Study of How Anti-Black Racial Violence Informs Racial Grief and Resistance Among Black Mothers

Scholars have begun to address how exposure to vicarious racial violence influences stress and coping processes among Black families in the U.S. Yet, fewer scholars have considered the importance of racial grief as a component of the coping process. The current study drew upon semi-structured interview data from 31 Black mothers in the U.S. (25-52 years; M _age = 35 years) to explore how mothers processed and responded to vicarious anti-Black racial violence. We used consensual qualitative research methods and identified the following themes: (a) recognizing the endemic nature of racial violence, (b) feeling frozen in fear after a new case of racial violence, and (c) transforming grief into grievance as a route to racial justice. The findings contextualize Black mothers' concerns about the racial violence that they and their children might experience during their lifetime, and how they channel this grief into actionable change against racial injustice. Authors discuss strengths-based ways to frame the role of grief and loss in the context of racism.