Disparate Impacts of Police Contact Early in the Life Course on Health Outcomes?

• In Event: Mental Health Consequences of Criminal Legal System Contact Over the Life Course

Abstract

Criminal legal system contact is associated with increases in subsequent offending, detriments to physical and mental health, unemployment, and drug use. With this research, we focus on the health implications of exposure to early stages of the criminal legal system - involuntary police contact. These relatively “light touches” with the system can negatively affect an array of life course outcomes and may be particularly salient when this exposure occurs early in the life course. Importantly, the effects of police contact, and its adverse outcomes, are not randomly distributed throughout the population but are instead racially and spatially patterned. We ask whether health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood are conditioned by early system contact and if effects differ by race and gender. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) which includes youth with varied criminal legal system experiences, followed into adulthood. We use propensity score modeling with the aim of isolating the impact of experiencing an arrest early in the life course on trajectories of physical health, mental health, and premature mortality. Preliminary analyses suggest disparate impacts of police contact early in the life course.

Authors

• Bianca Bersani, University of Maryland

• Guyu Sun, University of Maryland, College Park

• Lauren Porter, University of Maryland, College Park

• Wade C. Jacobsen, University of Maryland