Citation

Piquero AR. J. Adolesc. Health 2019; 65(5): 579-580.

Affiliation

Program in Criminology & Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas; Criminology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.08.002

PMID

31648756

Abstract

Of the great many public servants, perhaps those with the greatest visibility, discretion, and public scrutiny are the police. More often than not, their actions are in the public eye and constantly under review. When police act in what are perceived to be unjust ways, then the trust between them and the general public becomes fractured and threatens the integrity of the criminal justice system [1]. Aside from the possibility of fractured community-level relationships, individual-level, police-citizen interactions that are viewed as procedurally unjust have the potential to create adverse consequences among members of the public. These interactions form the heart of the public's view of the legitimacy of the police [2]. Individual police stops that take a turn for the worst may generate distress and trauma, which in turn could produce adverse behavioral adaptations [3], as well as a compromised legal socialization process by which persons acquire and form attitudes about the law, legal authorities, and legal institutions [4].
To date, however, there has been very limited, large-scale empirical research exploring the link between police stops and any potential adverse emotional and mental health outcomes. Until now. In this issue of the Journal, an excellent article by Jackson et al. [5] examines the extent to which emotional and mental distress is heightened as a result of police-initiated contact in a large sample of youth. Among the sample of adolescents who had been stopped by the police, about 26% of the subjects in the study, some important but disconcerting findings emerged. In particular, the risk of emotional distress during the stop and social stigma and posttraumatic stress following the stop increased with each form of officer intrusion (such as searching). And when all seven forms of intrusiveness were considered, the risk of adverse mental/emotional health experiences increased by over 40 percentile points. Furthermore, the location of the stop mattered as well, with youth stopped at school experiencing the greatest levels of these adverse emotions, especially stigmatization likely because of the public nature of the event...

Language: en