Proactive Policing and Mental Health in a Panel of Young Urban Men

• In Event: Race, Law and the New Policing

Abstract

The shift to proactive policing has made police a ubiquitous presence in many urban neighborhoods. Proactive policing includes increased rates of traffic and public order citations, the intensive enforcement of quality of life ordinances, and frequent questioning and searches, often accompanied by verbal and physical aggression. In this paper, we estimate the mental health implications of police contact using data from a two-wave telephone survey of 1,261 men ages 18-26 clustered in 36 neighborhoods. The panel design tests for mental health effects of street stops controlling for respondents’ mental health status prior to their most recent stops. We show that aggressive police contact adversely affects the mental health of individuals stopped. Persons stopped often experience psychological trauma from aggressive treatment in the face of unfounded accusations of wrongdoing. Individuals who believe they were targeted by their race or ethnicity, or may be so targeted again, also experience symptoms tied to the stresses of perceived or anticipated racism. Alternate models show the sensitivity of estimated effects to the quantity and intensity of respondents’ stop experience. Although a single “critical incident” is likely adversely affect respondents’ mental health, anxiety and trauma may also be elevated following less aggressive, but frequent, stops.

Authors

• Amanda Geller, New York University

• Jeffrey Fagan, Columbia University

• Tom R. Tyler, Yale University

• Bruce D. Link, University of California, Riverside