Impact of Community Policing on Biological Markers of Health Across Development in Black Youth

Abstract

Policing inequities are harmful sources of systemic racism perpetuated disproportionately against Black Americans. This includes unjust police encounters in Black communities such as racial profiling, stop-and-frisk, hyperpolicing, aggressive policing, police brutality, and police shootings. A knowledge gap exists in how this mistreatment, via direct or intergenerational exposure, impacts physiological systems in Black youth. Using three studies, we tested how exposure to unjust policing biologically “gets under the skin” of Black youth from infancy to emerging adulthood. Study 1 (IDS) examined associations between neighborhood stop-and-frisk rates and telomere length in infants. Study 2 (NSPAC) explored associations between mothers’ experience of unfair treatment by police and developmental and stress related hormone coupling in their children ages 5-15. Study 3 (SDRG) tested whether encounters with police in the 8th grade had a lasting impact on diurnal and waking cortisol six years later during emerging adulthood. Rates of neighborhood stop-and-frisk were associated with shorter telomeres in infants (study 1, IDS). Children whose mothers experienced unfair treatment from police showed, during the TSST, blunted cortisol stress reactivity, slower cortisol recovery, and altered cortisol-testosterone coupling (study 2, NSPAC). Adolescents who experienced police encounters had higher waking cortisol as emerging adults (study 3, SDRG). Policing inequities were linked to biological markers of stress and health across all developmental stages of Black youth. Direct, within child’s neighborhoods and intergenerational unjust policing were associated with stress-responsive biological pathways in Black youth. Findings represent a critical and modifiable target when seeking to address persistent racial inequity.