Police Contact Research Articles

Sexual orientation and experiences with police contact in Canada

PurposeTo investigate the relationship between sexual orientation and police contact—including police contact with intrusion (i.e., use of intrusive verbal or physical force) and police contact with harassment (i.e., actions making one feel inferior based on appearance, identity, or demographic background)—among a national sample in Canada. MethodsLogistic and multinomial logistic regression were used to assess the association between sexual orientation and experiences with police contact among a sample of 940 persons ages 16–30 across Canada. ResultsCompared to heterosexual participants, persons identifying as bisexual were significantly more likely to report having any police contact in the past 12 months (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.09, 2.70). Bisexual (RRR = 3.45, 95% CI = 1. 83, 6.50) and queer, questioning, and other (RRR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.15, 4.73) identifying participants were more likely to report having experienced police contact with harassment relative to no police contact, compared to heterosexual individuals. ConclusionsThe current study provides the first analysis of the relationship between sexual minority identity and experiences with adverse police contact in Canada, revealing higher levels of police contact and police contact with harassment, especially among bisexual and queer, questioning, other individuals. Findings suggest that sexual minority persons in Canada experience potentially harmful police contact at elevated rates, which may have significant ramifications for health and traumatic stress responses.

Experiences of Policing in Gentrifying Neighborhoods: Evidence From Chicago

Do patterns of unequal policing persist or transform within gentrifying neighborhoods? Using an original survey of Chicago residents, we assess whether gentrifiers and longtime residents experience policing differently. Building on macro-level studies which rely on aggregate population data and micro-level studies which rely on ethnographies and interviews, we conduct a meso-level study that compares the experiences and views of differently positioned residents. We find that the phenomenon of being “over-policed and under-protected” that characterizes race-class subjugated neighborhoods is replicated within gentrifying neighborhoods for longtime residents. Meanwhile, gentrifiers express less concern about crime and report fewer interactions with police. While the average gentrifier has low levels of police contact, we find some evidence that a subset of gentrifiers are more likely to call the police about quality-of-life issues compared to neighbors. Our methodological approach provides a blueprint for how survey research can provide insights on individual-level experiences and attitudes in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Adverse childhood experiences and adolescent handgun carrying

PurposeConsiderable research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with well-known correlates of handgun carrying, such as delinquent peer association, substance use, and police contact and/or arrest. Yet, little to no research to date has explicitly examined the potential role of ACEs in adolescent handgun carrying. The current study examines this important gap in existing literature. MethodsData drawn from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS, n = 23,078), a statewide representative sample of Florida high School students, were analyzed to examine the associations between individual ACEs and cumulative ACEs and carrying a handgun in the past 12 months. ResultsExposure to ACEs, such as family incarceration, family violence, and parental separation/divorce increased the likelihood of carrying a handgun three or more times in the past 12 months. Moreover, a dose-response relationship was identified between ACEs and handgun carrying, wherein, the more ACEs an adolescent was exposed to, the more likely they were to have carried a handgun in the past 12 months. ConclusionsThis study highlights the contribution of ACEs to adolescent handgun carrying behaviors.

When home reminds me of jail: The carceral nature of out-of-home care for Black youth in Ontario’s child welfare system

This article examines the intersections and paradoxes in out-of-home care (OOHC) for Black youth involved in Ontario’s child welfare system and the ways in which those experiences mirror treatment in the judicial system. Using an anti-carceral theory, this article weaves together the intersecting threads of anti-Black racism and carceral logic to construct Black youth’s experiences living in OOHC (non-relative foster care and group homes). Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with Black Caribbean youth from the Greater Toronto Area to understand their experiences in OOHC. In addition to exploring the ways in which OOHC is similar to carceral care, this study also describes youths’ narratives of police contact and involvement while under the care of the child welfare system. The data revealed a connection between OOHC and jail, a lack of autonomy, and policing as an intervention for Black youth. Additionally, the findings illustrated how social workers’ and child and youth workers' interactions are underpinned by carceral logic; their attempts to provide services to Black youth were often akin to policing, where surveillance, behavior management, and control were central to the ethics of care. Recommendations for policy and practice include reducing police intervention, ensuring both stability and flexibility, and discretion and honoring youth voice in applying policy and practice guidelines.

Updating, subtyping, and perceptions of the police: Implications of police contact for youths’ perceptions of procedural justice

AbstractIndividuals enter police encounters with expectations about how these interactions will unfold. These expectations are often rooted in racialized personal, vicarious, and collective experiences with the police. Bayesian updating posits that the way youth perceive treatment by the police during stops and arrests combines with prior expectations and perceptions to shape current views of the law, whereas subtyping suggests this process differs by race. This study examines intra‐ and interracial variability in these processes using longitudinal survey data from 3,085 Black and White youth. Regardless of race, youth who indicate they were treated with disrespect during police encounters had lower perceptions of procedural justice than did those with no contact, whereas contact perceived as respectful had no significant effects. For White but not Black youth, police encounters rated as “neutral” are associated with more negative views of the police. Other forms of legal socialization are also racialized, including messages conveyed in the media and by parents. Limited evidence exists that prior views of the police moderate the effect of police encounters on procedural justice or that these conditioning effects vary by race. Findings support updating, but race differences do not neatly align with findings expected with updating or subtyping theory.

Radicalization Processes and Transitional Phases in Female and Male Detainees Residing in Dutch Terrorism Wings.

Radicalization, violent extremism, and terrorism are risks to societal security. Although research on terrorism-related behaviors is increasing, thorough empirical studies are rare. This study investigates radicalization processes and transitions in a matched sample of female and male terrorist suspects and convicts (N = 26) residing in Dutch penitentiary terrorism wings. Results show that both men and women often experienced discrimination. A subgroup of women grew up in a stressful family environment and lacked emotional support from their family, whereas the other women did not experience such circumstances. The majority of the study sample was susceptible to connecting with radicalized friends or family members. Interestingly, factors that initially led to radicalization (e.g., a utopian image of the Islamic State) could later turn out to be factors associated with abandoning extremism. In this study, differences in radicalization processes and transitional phases between women and men emerged. Men more often had police contact prior to a terrorism-related offense. Making an effort to right old mistakes seemed important in the radicalization processes of men, whereas women had a stronger desire for emotional support and were more driven by experienced trauma and feelings of loneliness. This study provides input for gender-specific prevention and disengagement interventions.

Anticipated unmet educational expectations following youth police contact

Youth police contact is a common experience, rooted in structural inequalities and systemic racism, and research increasingly documents its harmful repercussions. However, scholars have overlooked the connections between youth police contact and subjective perceptions of college aspirations and expectations, an important oversight given that the internalized stigma of police contact can disrupt an individual’s future orientation. In this article, we use data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study—a longitudinal survey of U.S. children born around the turn of the 21st century in urban areas—to investigate how police contact shapes anticipated unmet educational expectations (i.e., high educational aspirations without high educational expectations), net of youth, family, and neighborhood characteristics associated with police contact. First, youth experiencing police contact with arrests, but not youth experiencing police contact without arrests, are more likely to report anticipated unmet educational expectations than those not experiencing police contact. Second, any police contact—with or without an arrest—is negatively associated with both high educational expectations and high educational aspirations. Third, the association between police contact with arrests and anticipated unmet educational expectations is partially explained by academic performance. Taken together, findings support an accumulating body of knowledge that criminal legal contact, an experience concentrated among youth of color, can hamper youth’s educational outlooks and subjective wellbeing.

Police Contact, Collective Efficacy, and Grit among Youth in Urban Areas

Police Contact, Collective Efficacy, and Grit among Youth in Urban Areas

The effects of stigma and discrimination on help‐seeking behaviour and the role of police contact

AbstractIn the attempt to increase mental health‐related service contacts, research has increasingly focussed on understanding help‐seeking; this has repeatedly found stigma and discrimination to present as significant factors inhibiting contact with services. Other cognate research has demonstrated the over‐representation of mental illness in the criminal justice system, and varied impacts of police contact on perceptions of police legitimacy and future compliance‐related behaviour. However, there has been limited‐to‐no research examining the potential effects of police contact on future help‐seeking behaviours. The study included 101 Australian‐based participants with a lived experience of mental illness who completed an online survey measuring anticipated and experienced discrimination, stigma, police contact variables and general help‐seeking. Findings suggested that anticipated discrimination and prior police contact were associated with a lower intention to seek help, with those reporting prior police contact being significantly less likely to seek help than those without prior police contact. The results indicate the need to consider individualised experiences of contacts with health and justice services, and for these services to prioritise procedurally just engagement, to limit experiences of discrimination and increase people's inclination to seek help.

Antecedents of legal cynicism unpacked: The impact of parental incarceration, race, and ACEs on its development

PurposeThe recent rise in homicide has led to ongoing debate on the role of law enforcement due to research that suggests cynicism in the legal system can be criminogenic and lead to violence. Understanding how and why legal cynicism develops is important to improve police-community relationships and to lower crime. MethodsThe current study uses a national data set and structural equation modeling to understand how familial factors such as parental incarceration, experiencing adverse childhood experiences, and youth race are predictive of legal cynicism and how this might be mediated through experiencing police stops. ResultsFindings suggest race, parental incarceration, and ACEs are all directly predictive of police stops and indirectly predictive of legal cynicism. Only race and parental incarceration directly predict legal cynicism. ConclusionsGiven the current concerns over rising violent crime rates in urban cities and the quality and nature of police-citizen interactions, our results provide a timely analysis of risk factors contributing to the development of legal cynicism. Findings suggest that, not only must we be concerned with the well-documented impact of police contact, we should expand our view to include experiences with parental incarceration. Implications for practitioners and criminal justice professionals are discussed.

From School Halls to Shopping Malls: Multilevel Predictors of Police Contact In and Out of School

From School Halls to Shopping Malls: Multilevel Predictors of Police Contact In and Out of School

Police‐perpetrated racism and health in African American and Black communities

AbstractThis brief review article focuses on police‐perpetrated racism against African American and Black (AAB) communities, typically in the form of police brutality, police violence, and aggressive policing. We assert that police‐perpetrated racism constitutes a racial justice and public health problem. A growing body of literature supports this assertion, with the consequences and correlates of direct police contact, vicarious police contact, and place‐based exposure to aggressive policing including mental health (e.g., anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, trauma) and physical health (e.g., poorer self‐rated health, hypertension) sequelae. We assert that eradicating police‐perpetrated racism requires acknowledgement of the historical landscape of policing as well as the ways in which police‐perpetrated racism maintains racial hierarchies. We conclude by making recommendations for promoting racial equity in policing.

Does Policing Help or Hurt? Examining the Longitudinal Relationship Between Police Involvement and Delinquency in Norway

Abstract The population heterogeneity argument links criminality to time-stable individual traits and suggests that criminal justice system involvements exert no independent influence on criminal behaviour. This study directly tests this postulation by estimating the relationship between police involvement and subsequent delinquency in an individual fixed effects design. The analysis relies on five waves of longitudinal data on self-reported delinquency and administrative data on police contacts. Results show that time-stable individual traits matter, but that the frequency of police contacts is positively associated with offending also after such characteristics have been accounted for. The results are thus in line with the state dependence argument and provide tentative support for labelling theory’s postulation that criminal justice involvement increases rather than decreases criminal behaviour.

Reporting to the Police Among People with Mental Illnesses Who Were Victims of Violence

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore reporting to the police in people with mental illnesses who were victims of violence. Fifty-eight persons with mental illnesses who had experienced physical, sexual, or psychological violence in the past three years answered quantitative questionnaires. After victimization, 33 (56.9%) participants had police contact, with 22 of them having initiated this contact. Participants who were younger (p = .027), had a substance use disorder (25.8% vs. 50.0%), used drugs or alcohol during victimization (25.0% vs. 51.7%), or experienced shame or guilt (27.5% vs. 62.5%) after victimization were less likely to report to the police. The most frequently named reasons not to report were fear of secondary victimization by the police and the belief that the police could not do anything or that the perpetrator would not be punished adequately.

MAOA methylation is associated with impulsive and antisocial behaviour: dependence on allelic variation, family environment and diet.

Congenital absence of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) activity predisposes to antisocial impulsive behaviour, and the MAOA uVNTR low-expressing genotype (MAOA-L) together with childhood maltreatment is associated with similar phenotypes in males. A possible explanation of how family environment may lead to such behaviour involves DNA methylation. We have assessed MAOA methylation and impulsive/antisocial behaviour in 121 males from the Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study. Of the 12 CpG sites measured, methylation levels at the locus designated CpG3 were significantly lower in subjects with antisocial behaviour involving police contact. CpG3 methylation was lower in subjects with alcohol use disorder by age 25, but only in MAOA-H genotype. No correlation between MAOA CpG3 methylation levels and adaptive impulsivity was found at age 15, but in MAOA-L genotype a positive correlation appeared by age 18. By age 25, this positive correlation was no longer observed in subjects with better family relationships but had increased further with experience of adversity within the family. MAOA CpG3 methylation had different developmental dynamics in relation to maladaptive impulsivity. At age 18, a positive correlation was observed in MAOA-L genotype with inferior family relationships and a negative correlation was found in MAOA-H with superior home environment; both of these associations had disappeared by age 25. CpG3 methylation was associated with dietary intake of several micronutrients, most notable was a negative correlation with the intake of zinc, but also with calcium, potassium and vitamin E; a positive correlation was found with intake of phosphorus. In conclusion, MAOA CpG3 methylation is related to both maladaptive and adaptive impulsivity in adolescence in MAOA-L males from adverse home environment. By young adulthood, this relationship with maladaptive impulsivity had disappeared but with adaptive impulsivity strengthened. Thus, MAOA CpG3 methylation may serve as a marker for adaptive developmental neuroplasticity in MAOA-L genotype. The mechanisms involved may include dietary factors.

The Structure and Operation of the Transgender Criminal Legal System Nexus in the United States: Inequalities, Administrative Violence, and Injustice at Every Turn

A growing body of research reveals that transgender people are disproportionately in contact with the criminal legal system, wherein they experience considerable discrimination, violence, and other harms. To better understand transgender people's involvement in this system, this article synthesizes research from criminology, transgender studies, and related fields as well as empirical findings produced outside of academe, to conceptualize a “transgender criminal legal system nexus.” This article examines historical and contemporary criminalization of transgender people; differential system contact and attendant experiences associated with police contact, judicial decision-making, and incarceration; and pathways to system involvement for transgender people. The analytic focus is on cultural logics related to institutionalized conceptualizations of gender, discriminatory people-processing in various domains of the criminal legal system, and institutionally produced disparities for transgender people involved in the criminal legal system, especially transgender women of color. The article concludes with a discussion of directions for future research, including a focus on administrative violence, organizational sorting, intersectionality, and measurement challenges.

“I Don’t Think the Police Think We’re Human”: Legal Socialization Among Young Transgender Women

ABSTRACT Legal socialization is the process by which individuals develop values, attitudes, and behaviors related to the law and legal authorities. Legal socialization also includes beliefs about procedural justice, police legitimacy, and legal cynicism. To date, few studies have examined the legal socialization processes of transgender women, a worrisome omission given high rates of police contact, arrest, harassment, and violence among transgender women, particularly transgender women of color. This study examines transgender women’s experiences with and perceptions about the police, including experiences of procedural injustice and how they impact police legitimacy and cynicism, among a racially diverse sample of transgender women living in Chicago. Participants described undergoing a secondary legal socialization process after beginning to transition. The study also documented strategies transgender women use to prevent police contact and arrest.

Impact of COVID-19 on the lives of people with severe mental illness—front-line community psychiatry workers observation from a provincial survey of assertive community treatment teams in Ontario, Canada

Using an online survey distributed to members of the provincial organization that represents the 88 Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Flexible ACT teams in Ontario, Canada, this descriptive study relied on the unique vantage points and observations of the front-line community psychiatry workers who maintained contact with patients through outreach and telecommunication during the height of COVID-19. The patients who suffer from serious mental illness (SMI) were uniquely affected by COVID-19 due to the changes, reduction or shut down of many essential clinical and community support services. Thematic and quantitative analyses of the workers’ observations highlighted 6 main areas of note, including significant social isolation and loneliness, clinical course deterioration and life disruption, increased hospital and ER use, police and legal contacts, and substance abuse and related deaths. There were also encouraging signs of positive adaptations in terms of independence and resilience. Reflections of these impacts and potential ameliorating approaches are further discussed.

Situational stress and suicide attempt behavior in Army soldiers and veterans: Insights from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers-Longitudinal Study.

Prevention of suicide-related behaviors is considered a top clinical priority within the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense. Despite previous literature attesting to the likely importance of situational stress as a key correlate of acute changes in suicide risk, longitudinal research into associations between situational stress and suicide-related outcomes among military personnel has been relatively limited. The current study examined associations between situational stress, recent suicide attempt, and future suicide attempt using data from 14,508 Army soldiers and recently discharged veterans enrolled in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers-Longitudinal Studies (STARRS-LS). Recent situational stress was more common among recently discharged veterans (vs. soldiers), those with a recent suicide attempt (vs. those without), and those with a subsequent suicide attempt (vs. those without). Job loss was more closely associated with suicide attempts among soldiers, whereas financial crisis, police contact, and death, illness, or injury of close others were more closely associated with suicide attempts among recently discharged veterans. Findings further highlight situational stress as a salient risk factor for suicide-related outcomes among military personnel, particularly among recently discharged veterans. Implications for screening and treatment of at-risk military personnel are discussed.

The Politics of Police

The connection between racially prejudiced policing and politics has a long history in the United States. In the current period, police organizations have displayed unprecedented support for Republican presidential candidates, and both have organized against social movements focused on addressing racial disparities in police contact. Yet despite strong connections between law enforcement and party politics, we know almost nothing about the relationship between partisan identity and the behavior of police officers. Using millions of traffic stop records from the Florida Highway Patrol and linked voter records, the present study shows that White Republican officers exhibit a larger racial disparity than White Democratic officers in their propensity to search motorists whom they have stopped. This result is robust to an array of alternative empirical tests and holds across varying sociodemographic contexts. I also find that both White Republican and White Democratic officers grew more biased between 2012 and 2020, a period characterized by the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the election of Donald Trump.