Officer Gunpoint During Police Stops: Repercussions for Youth Mental Health and Perceived Safety

• In Event: Health Criminology: Policing and Adolescent Health

Abstract

The present study investigates patterns of officer gunpoint exposure in youths’ direct and witnessed in-person police stops, and whether these exposures shape emotional distress, police violence stress, police avoidance, and diminished safety perceptions. Data come from the Survey of Police-Adolescent Contact Experiences (SPACE), a cross-sectional survey of a community-based sample of Black youth ages 12-21 in Baltimore City, Maryland (n = 335), administered from August 2022 to July 2023. Findings indicate that ~19% of youth in the full sample, and ~33% of youth reporting in-person stops, had been exposed to officer gunpoint during the course of one or more police stops. Net of covariates, experiencing officer gunpoint in multiple stop contexts (e.g., direct and witnessed) was associated with a 188% increase in the rate of emotional distress during stops. Significant associations between officer gunpoint during stops and current police violence stress, police avoidance, and diminished safety perceptions also emerged, and were largely explained by heightened emotional distress among youth at the time of police stops.
Public health approaches are needed to mitigate the mental health harms of experiencing officer gunpoint during adolescence.

Authors

• Alexander Testa, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Dylan B. Jackson, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Rebecca L. Fix, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Daniel Charles Semenza, Rutgers University

• Julie A. Ward, Vanderbilt University

• Cassandra K. Crifasi, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health