摘要：Objectives. We surveyed young men on their experiences of police encounters and subsequent mental health. Methods. Between September 2012 and March 2013, we conducted a population-based telephone survey of 1261 young men aged 18 to 26 years in New York City. Respondents reported how many times they were approached by New York Police Department officers, what these encounters entailed, any trauma they attributed to the stops, and their overall anxiety. We analyzed data using cross-sectional regressions. Results. Participants who reported more police contact also reported more trauma and anxiety symptoms, associations tied to how many stops they reported, the intrusiveness of the encounters, and their perceptions of police fairness. Conclusions. The intensity of respondent experiences and their associated health risks raise serious concerns, suggesting a need to reevaluate officer interactions with the public. Less invasive tactics are needed for suspects who may display mental health symptoms and to reduce any psychological harms to individuals stopped. The criminal justice system has been recognized increasingly as a threat to physical and mental health. 1–3 Changes in policing practices in the past 2 decades have brought a growing number of urban residents into contact with the criminal justice system, 4 making the consequences of such contact increasingly important to understand. In the past 20 years, many cities have shifted to a proactive policing model in which officers actively engage citizens in high-crime areas to detect imminent criminal activity or disrupt circumstances interpreted as indicia that “crime is afoot.” 5 One way proactive policing is sanctioned constitutionally is through a tactic known as Terry stops, 6 in which police temporarily detain and perhaps frisk or search persons they suspect are, were, or are about to be engaged in criminal activity. Between 2004 and 2012, the New York City Police Department recorded more than 4 million such stops. 7 Large cities such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 8 and Los Angeles, California, 9 have experienced similar practices, and a survey of Chicago, Illinois, public school students 10 found that police had stopped and questioned about half and “told them off or told them to move on.” A quarter to a third of these students reported having been searched by police. Overall, the burden of police contact in each of these cities falls predominantly on young Black and Latino males, 8,10,11 with significant disparities in police conduct across neighborhoods. 12,13 Recent studies suggest that Terry stops are often harsh encounters in which physical violence, racial/ethnic degradation, and homophobia are commonplace, 14,15 raising the potential for adverse mental health effects. We examined associations between involuntary police contact and mental health among young men in New York City, where Terry stops and proactive policing (commonly known as “stop and frisk” activity) have been the subject of contentious debate and litigation. 11,16,17 Public perceptions of stop and frisk vary widely, with some observers raising concerns about the aggressive nature of many stops 18 and their shaky constitutional grounds. 19 Others dismiss these concerns as outweighed by the benefit of crime deterrence 20 or as inconveniences that should be accepted as a “fact of urban life.” 21 Most of what is known about New Yorkers’ police contact is derived from observational incident-level data, 12,16 journalistic accounts, 18,19,21 or convenience samples 22 and suggests a complex and conflicted relationship between community members and the police. However, such accounts provide only limited insight into the broader implications of the practice. We have advanced understanding of the cumulative experiences of young men with these police encounters using a population-based survey.
