Years of life lost due to encounters with law enforcement in the USA, 2015–2016

Abstract

The number of YLLs due to police violence is substantial. YLLs highlight that police violence disproportionately impacts young people, and the young people affected are disproportionately people of colour. Framing police violence as an important cause of deaths among young adults provides another valuable lens to motivate prevention efforts.

“That’s My Number One Fear in Life. It’s the Police”: Examining Young Black Men’s Exposures to Trauma and Loss Resulting From Police Violence and Police Killings

“…The United Nations’ (2016) Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent identified the United States’ continued practice of systemic racism and the killing of unarmed Black Americans with impunity as international human rights concerns and barriers to achieving racial equality. These practices simultaneously threaten the physical health and psychological well-being of Black Americans (Bui et al, 2018) and counteract the United States’ vision of “a society in which all people can achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan” (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2018, para. 16).…”

“…Between the years of 2010 and 2014, Black males aged 10 years and older were nearly three times more likely to die as a result of police violence than their White counterparts (Buehler, 2017). These statistics highlight a health disparity (Bui, Coates, & Matthay, 2018; Cooper, & Fullilove, 2016; Krieger, Chen, Waterman, Kiang, & Feldman, 2015; Obasogie & Newman, 2017) that burdens Black males and their social networks with disproportionate experiences of loss, grief, and other mental and physical health concerns resulting from police violence.…”

Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex

“…The killings of Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Charleena Lyles, Stephon Clark, and Tamir Rice, among many others, and the protests that followed have brought sustained national attention to the racialized character of police violence against civilians (11). Social scientists and public health scholars now widely acknowledge that police contact is a key vector of health inequality (3,6) and is an important cause of early mortality for people of color (12).…”

Negative illness feedbacks: High‐frisk policing reduces civilian reliance on ED services

“…Police violence is an unyielding public health crisis in a number of marginalized and vulnerable American communities 1‐6 . Research on spillovers of the criminal legal system indicates that direct contact with police officers is associated with poor health outcomes including psychological distress, 7‐11 compounded illness conditions, 12,13 infectious disease transmission, 14,15 and death 16,17 . Even indirect police contact poses adverse health risks for those embedded in networks that endure aggressive policing practices 18‐26 especially, among men living in aggressively surveilled areas and women living in lethally surveilled areas 27 .…”