Amanda Geller is with the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, University of California, Irvine. At the time of the study (until 2020), A. Geller was with the Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY.
Am J Public Health. 2021 Jul;111(7):1300-1308. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306259. Epub 2021 May 20.
To assess police contact as a potential adverse childhood experience by measuring its prevalence, nature, and distribution among urban adolescents. Detailed US population-based data on youth‒police contact were collected in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 2478) from 2014 to 2017. Using regression modeling, I assessed adolescents' police exposure and the magnitude and robustness of racial disparities in police contact. Sensitivity analyses examined disparities by behavior and socioeconomic context. Urban youths are heavily policed, beginning in preadolescence. Exposure to policing is unevenly distributed, with non-White adolescents-particularly Black boys-reporting more, and more aggressive, contact than their White counterparts. Hispanic‒White differences and disparities in girls' experiences were less pronounced but present, particularly in how intrusive stops were. Intrusion disparities were robust to most behavioral controls, but not observed among youths with higher socioeconomic status. Given extant literature documenting adverse health consequences of police encounters, findings implicate policing as a driver of health disparities in adolescence and throughout the life course. Public health infrastructure dedicated to the prevention and treatment of adverse childhood experiences is well suited for mitigating these harms and inequities.
为了评估警察接触（通过衡量其在城市青少年中的流行程度、性质和分布情况来评估）作为一种潜在的儿童期逆境体验，本研究使用 2014 年至 2017 年脆弱家庭与儿童福利研究（n=2478）中收集的美国详细的基于人口的青年与警察接触数据。通过回归建模，评估了青少年接触警察的情况以及警察接触方面种族差异的程度和稳健性。敏感性分析考察了不同行为和社会经济背景下的差异。城市青少年受到严格的警察监管，从青春期前就开始了。接触警察的情况分布不均，非裔美国青少年——尤其是黑人男孩——比他们的白人同龄人报告更多、更具攻击性的接触。西班牙裔-白人之间的差异以及女孩经历中的差异不太明显，但也存在，尤其是在拦截的侵入程度上。侵入性差异在大多数行为控制下是稳健的，但在社会经济地位较高的青少年中没有观察到。鉴于现有文献记录了警察接触对健康的不利影响，研究结果表明，警察接触是青少年和整个生命历程中健康差异的一个驱动因素。专门用于预防和治疗儿童期逆境体验的公共卫生基础设施非常适合减轻这些伤害和不平等。
