Police killings and suicide among Black Americans

COVID-19, the COVID-19 response, and racial injustice: Associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms among US adults from April 2020 to March 2021

“…Our finding of a lack of statistically significant association between the state-level occurrence of police killings of unarmed Black people and depressive or anxiety symptoms across our sample contrasts with previous work finding that each additional killing by police was associated with 0.14 additional poor mental health days among Black respondents ( Bor et al, 2018 ). Several recent studies have also measured the emotional and mental toll of racial violence, particularly for Black and Hispanic individuals and those with lower incomes ( Kyriopoulos et al, 2022 ; Lin et al, 2022 ). One potential explanation for the discrepancy is that the assessment of depressive and anxiety symptoms in this study – with response options like feeling anxiety, ‘not at all,’ or ‘several days,’ over the previous seven days – was not sufficiently granular to detect a difference comparable to 0.14 additional poor mental health days per month.…”

“…Police killings of unarmed Black people have been shown to have adverse effects on the mental health of Black people in general, in part by making systemic racism and lack of fairness more salient, reducing trust in social institutions, triggering prior traumas, and igniting community bereavement ( Bor et al, 2018 ). These killings have been linked to higher suicide rates, particularly among Black men, as well as higher and more sustained levels of sadness among Black and Hispanic individuals, alongside those with lower incomes, compared to white and higher-income individuals ( Kyriopoulos et al, 2022 ; Lin et al, 2022 ). Recent studies suggest that exposure to police violence is linked to reduced educational attainment and increased anxiety, with the strongest effects on Black and Hispanic youth ( Ang, 2021 ; Burch and Jacobs, 2022 ).…”

Local political climate and spill-over effects on refugee and migrant health: a conceptual framework and call to advance the evidence

“…Not only direct exposure to violence but also indirect exposure, for example, witnessing, hearing or knowing about the victimisation from media reports or peers, is associated with negative mental health outcomes 30. Spill-over effects have been well studied in the context of police killings of Black Americans: the body of evidence strongly suggests that the negative effect of violence against racialised groups unfolds beyond the immediate victims, translating into poorer mental health,31 32 higher suicide rates33 and higher emergency department visits for depressive symptoms34 among Black Americans. Such effects are larger with increasing ‘proximity’—in terms of geography or identity—to the victims of direct violence 31–33.…”

“…Spill-over effects have been well studied in the context of police killings of Black Americans: the body of evidence strongly suggests that the negative effect of violence against racialised groups unfolds beyond the immediate victims, translating into poorer mental health,31 32 higher suicide rates33 and higher emergency department visits for depressive symptoms34 among Black Americans. Such effects are larger with increasing ‘proximity’—in terms of geography or identity—to the victims of direct violence 31–33. With decreasing ‘proximity’, research challenges arise as quantitative effect measurements may weaken.…”

“…Such effects are larger with increasing 'proximity'-in terms of geography or identity-to the victims of direct violence. [31][32][33] With decreasing 'proximity', research challenges arise as quantitative effect measurements may weaken. Overall, data and measurement challenges caution researchers to rely on oversimplified approaches which may lead to misclassification of exposures.…”