School of Social Work,University of Maryland,Baltimore, MD,USA.
University of California Berkeley,School of Public Health,Berkeley, CA,USA.
Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2017 Oct;26(5):466-477. doi: 10.1017/S2045796016000810. Epub 2016 Nov 11.
Aims Victimisation by the police is purported to be widespread in cities in the USA, but there is limited data on police-public encounters from community samples. This is partly due to an absence of measures for assessing police violence exposure from the standpoint of civilians. As such, the demographic distribution and mental health correlates of police victimisation are poorly understood. The aims of this study were to present community-based prevalence estimates of positive policing and police victimisation based on assessment with two novel measures, and to test the hypotheses that (1) exposure to police victimisation would vary across demographic groups and (2) would be associated with depression and psychological distress.
The Survey of Police-Public Encounters study surveyed adults residing in four US cities to examine the prevalence, demographic distribution and psychological correlates of police victimisation. Participants (N = 1615) completed measures of psychological distress (K-6 scale), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire 9) and two newly constructed measures of civilian-reported police-public encounters. Both measures were developed to assess police victimisation based on the WHO domains of violence, which include physical violence (with and without a weapon, assessed separately), sexual violence (inappropriate sexual contact, including public strip searches), psychological violence (e.g., threatening, intimidating, stopping without cause, or using discriminatory slurs) and neglect (police not responding when called or responding too late). The Police Practices Inventory assesses lifetime history of exposure to positive policing and police victimisation, and the Expectations of Police Practices Scale assesses the perceived likelihood of future incidents of police victimisation. Linear regression models were used to test for associations between police-public encounters and psychological distress and depression.
Psychological violence (18.6%) and police neglect (18.8%) were commonly reported in this sample and a substantial minority of respondents also reported more severe forms of violence, specifically physical (6.1%), sexual (2.8%) and physical with a weapon (3.3%). Police victimisation was more frequently reported by racial/ethnic minorities, males, transgender respondents and younger adults. Nearly all forms of victimisation (but not positive policing) were associated with psychological distress and depression in adjusted linear regression models.
Victimisation by police appears to be widespread, inequitably distributed across demographic groups and psychologically impactful. These findings suggest that public health efforts to both reduce the prevalence of police violence and to alleviate its psychological impact may be needed, particularly in disadvantaged urban communities.
据称，美国城市中警察施暴的现象普遍存在，但由于缺乏从平民角度评估警察暴力的措施，有关社区样本中警察与公众遭遇的相关数据十分有限。这在一定程度上导致了警察施暴的人口分布和与心理健康相关的因素仍不明确。本研究的目的是提出基于两项新措施评估的基于社区的警察施暴的流行率估计，并检验以下假设：（1）警察施暴的暴露率会因人口统计学群体而异；（2）警察施暴与抑郁和心理困扰相关。
警察与公众遭遇调查研究对四个美国城市的成年人进行了调查，以检验警察施暴的流行率、人口统计学分布和与心理健康相关的因素。参与者（N=1615）完成了心理困扰（K-6 量表）、抑郁（患者健康问卷 9）和两项新的平民报告的警察与公众遭遇的评估措施。这两项措施都是基于世界卫生组织暴力领域而制定的，包括身体暴力（有和没有武器，分别评估）、性暴力（不适当的性接触，包括公开搜身）、心理暴力（如威胁、恐吓、无故拦截或使用歧视性污言秽语）和忽视（警察接到电话时不出警或反应过慢）。警察实践清单评估的是一生中接触正面警务和警察施暴的经历，而对警察实践期望量表评估的是对未来遭遇警察施暴的可能性的认知。线性回归模型用于检验警察与公众遭遇与心理困扰和抑郁之间的关系。
在该样本中，心理暴力（18.6%）和警察忽视（18.8%）的报告较为常见，相当一部分受访者还报告了更严重的暴力形式，具体包括身体暴力（6.1%）、性暴力（2.8%）和带有武器的身体暴力（3.3%）。种族/民族少数群体、男性、跨性别受访者和年轻成年人更常报告警察施暴。几乎所有形式的施暴（但非正面警务）在调整后的线性回归模型中均与心理困扰和抑郁相关。
警察施暴似乎很普遍，在人口统计学群体中分布不均，对心理健康有影响。这些发现表明，可能需要采取公共卫生措施来减少警察暴力的流行率并减轻其心理影响，特别是在处于不利地位的城市社区。
