TABLE 1—

Selective Overview of Recent Studies of Police Violence and Mental Health: United States

Citation	Sample	Exposure	Outcome	Main Findings
Bor et al.18	Probability sample of the Black adult subsample of the 2013–2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (n = 103 710), paired state-level data	No. of recent police killings of unarmed Black US persons in the respondent’s state	No. of days in which the respondent rated mental health as “not good” over past mo	Each police killing was associated with an additional 0.14 poor mental health days.
Bowleg et al.20	Nonprobability sample of Black men aged 18–44 y residing in Washington, DC (n = 891)	Past-12-mo negative police encounters and police avoidance	Depressive symptoms	Negative police encounters and police avoidance were both associated with depressive symptoms, and mediated the association between incarceration history and depression.
DeVylder et al.11–13, a	Nonprobability general population sample of residents of Baltimore, MD; New York City; Philadelphia, PA; and Washington, DC (n = 1615)	Lifetime police violence exposure, assessed using the police practices inventory	Psychological distress, depression, psychotic experiences, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts	Exposure to all subtypes of police violence were associated with most mental health outcomes, largest odds ratios for more assaultive forms of violence (i.e., sexual and physical violence with a weapon).
DeVylder et al.14	Nonprobability general population sample of residents of Baltimore, MD, and New York City (n = 1000)	Past-12-mo police violence exposure, assessed using the police practices inventory	Psychological distress, psychotic experiences, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts	Exposure to all subtypes of police violence was associated with contemporaneous mental health outcomes, largest odds ratios for more assaultive forms of violence (i.e., sexual and physical assault with a weapon), with more extensive adjustments for potential confounders than in the 2017 studies.
Geller et al.10	Stratified random sample of young adults (18–26 y) in New York City (n = 1261)	No. and intrusiveness of recent stops by the police	Generalized anxiety symptoms, trauma symptoms related to the incident(s)	Total no. of stops and intrusiveness of stops were associated with PTSD and anxiety symptoms.
Hirschtick et al.16	Probability sample of adults residing in Chicago, IL (n = 1543)	Lifetime no. of police stops, aggressive police exposure	PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms	Total lifetime no. of stops was associated with PTSD symptoms but not depressive symptoms.
Jackson et al.19	Secondary analysis of adolescents (average age = 15 y) in the 2014–2017 wave of the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study (n = 918)	Frequency and context of police stops in adolescence	Emotional distress and PTSD symptoms	Frequency and intrusiveness of police stops (but not age of police stops), and being stopped at school, were associated with both outcomes.
Oh et al.15	Secondary analysis of the African American subsample of the National Survey of American Life, a national household probability sample (n = 3570)	Lifetime self-reported unfair stops, searches, questioning, or abuse (as a single binary item)	Past-year DSM-IV diagnoses of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and self-reported suicidal ideation, plans, or attempts	All mental health outcomes were significantly more common among respondents that reported exposure to abusive policing.
Sewell et al.17	Probability sample of noninstitutionalized adults in New York City (n = 8797), linked to neighborhood level data (n = 34 neighborhoods)	Neighborhood-level frequency of “stop & frisk” encounters	Psychological distress	Men reported greater psychological distress when neighborhoods experienced a greater frequency of “stop & frisk” policing.

Note. DSM-IV = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1994); PTSD = posttraumatic stress disorder.

^aAll 3 studies were from the same data set but focused on different outcomes.