Lethal Police Encounters and Cardiovascular Health among Black Americans.

This study uses insights from social stress theory to examine associations between exposure to police killings of Black Americans and cardiovascular health among Black women and men. Data on lethal police encounters come from the Mapping Police Violence (MPV) database, which allows for examination of total exposures to police killings of Black people and exposures to events when decedents were unarmed. MPV data are merged with the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n = 26,086) and state-level information from multiple federal databases. Four cardiovascular health outcomes are examined-hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. After adjusting for important risk factors, results from gender-stratified multilevel logistic regressions reveal a positive association between exposures to police killings of unarmed Black people and odds of hypertension among Black women and stroke among Black men. Total exposures to police killings of Black people are also associated with greater likelihood of stroke for Black men. Findings from this study demonstrate that stress exposures generated by the quantity and injustice of police killings have important implications for cardiovascular health among Black Americans. Furthermore, adverse cardiovascular health associated with exposure to police violence tends to manifest differently for Black men and women.

Former Incarceration, Time Served, and Perceived Oral Health among African American Women and Men.

A large body of research has documented the far-reaching health consequences of mass incarceration in the United States. Yet, less scholarship has examined the relationship between former incarceration and oral health, a key reflection of health and disease occurring within the rest of the body. Using data extracted from the National Survey of American Life (n = 3343), this study examines associations among former incarceration status, duration of detention, and self-reported oral health among African American women and men. Results from gender-stratified ordered logistic models reveal that formerly incarcerated African American men and women experience significantly poorer oral health than their never incarcerated counterparts even after controlling for important social determinants of health. Furthermore, oral health is curvilinearly associated with the length of time that men are incarcerated such that odds of poor health decrease as detention duration increases up to approximately 15 years incarcerated. After 15 years of detainment, the odds of poor health tend to increase as duration increases. Findings extend research identifying gendered spillover health consequences of contact with the criminal legal system. Health professionals and policymakers should be conscious of incarceration as an important deleterious experience for the immediate and long-term condition of people's teeth, mouth, and gums.

Police Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms in African American Women: The Intergenerational Impact of Genetic and Psychological Factors on Blood Pressure Study.

Introduction: There are significant and pervasive disparities in police violence and discrimination toward African Americans/Blacks. It is possible that these disparities may lead to heightened vulnerability for poor mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the associations between experiences of police discrimination and depressive symptoms in a community-based sample of African American/Black women. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional multivariable regression analysis using data from the Intergenerational Impact of Genetic and Psychological Factors on Blood Pressure Study that were collected over a 4-year period from September 2015 to June 2019. Depressive symptoms were assessed using 21 items from the Beck Depression Inventory. Police discrimination was assessed by questionnaires ascertaining experiences of discrimination by police; harassment by police or security guards; and experiences of being unfairly stopped, searched, threatened, or abused by police. Results: The analytical sample included 214 participants. Nineteen percent of participants indicated that they believed they experienced harassment from security guards/police due to their race/ethnicity. Fourteen percent of participants indicated that they had been unfairly stopped, searched, questioned, or abused by police. Police harassment was associated with higher depressive symptoms by an average of 4.48 (standard error [SE]=1.35, p<0.001). African American/Black women who were unfairly stopped, searched, or abused by police had higher depressive symptoms by an average of 4.54 (SE=1.57, p<0.01). Conclusion: African American/Black women who experienced police discrimination experienced higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. There is an urgent need for reliable population-level data on police mistreatment and interventions at the individual, community, and societal levels.

Race-gender variation in the relationship between arrest history and poor health from adolescence to adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine how criminal justice involvement, specifically arrests, shapes health by race-gender status and age for Black, Latinx, and White men and women from adolescence to adulthood. METHOD: Data were from sixteen waves (1997-2013) of data of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 7,674). Respondents were 12-16 years during the first wave of the survey. Multivariate logistic regression with interactions were used to determine how age and race-gender status shape the association between poor health and arrests over time. RESULTS: With the exception of Black men, arrest history is positively associated with the probability of poor health and this relationship strengthens with age. Arrests have the least detrimental impact on the health of Black men. For those without an arrest history, the probability of poor health also increases with age, but with a less steep incline over time than those who have been arrested. Overall, women who have been arrested, regardless of race, have the worst health prospects. CONCLUSIONS: A history of arrest is important for health from adolescence to adulthood and varies by race-gender status and age. Those without arrests in their backgrounds enjoy better health at both younger and older ages. For those who experience arrest, they generally report poorer health from adolescence into adulthood. One exception is Black men for whom those with an arrest history report the lowest probability of poor health, compared to Black women, Latinx men, Latinx women, White men, and White women.

A longitudinal study of justice characteristics among girls participating in a sex trafficking court program.

BACKGROUND: Sex trafficking is a public health and social justice issue that has traditionally been addressed with criminal justice solutions. Because many sex trafficking survivors are incarcerated for crimes related to their exploitation, specialty, human trafficking courts were developed to offer resources and assistance to labor and sex trafficking survivors. This study assessed justice-involved youth participating in a specialty, anti-trafficking court program. The purpose of this study was to investigate justice-related outcomes of participants in a specialty court program. We examined: (1) the relationship between age at first citation and justice characteristics (number of bench warrants, number of citations, number placements, and number of times ran away); and (2) the number of months between first citation and enrollment into the program with the aforementioned justice characteristics. We used negative binomial models to estimate the relationships between age at first citation, number of months between first citation and program enrollment, with the four justice characteristics (n = 181). RESULTS: Adjusted models showed that younger age at first citation was associated with significantly more bench warrants and citations while in the program. Likewise, fewer months between first citation and program entry was related to more bench warrants and citations. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to evaluate the appropriateness of specialty, trafficking court programs in reducing continued justice involvement and these programs ability to meet the evolving needs of sex trafficking survivors over time. We recommend universal screening for trafficking indicators for all systems-involved youth and relocating trafficking specialty courts out of juvenile courts to dependency courts.

Depression and African Americans in the First Decade of Midlife: The Consequences of Social Roles and Gender.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined gender differences in how three social roles - marriage, parenthood, and employment - impact depressive symptoms and clinically significant depression for African Americans in the first decade of midlife, from 40 to 50 years old. Specifically, we sought to understand the associations between roles configurations (e.g., married parent versus employed only) and depressed mood as well as diagnosable depression. METHOD: The data for this study were extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79). Constituting a representative sample of non-institutionalized Americans, NLSY respondents were interviewed each year from 1979 to 1994 and biennially thereafter. Our study included 2372 African Americans. We used ordinary least squares regression to estimate depressive symptoms and logistic regression to model the probability of clinically significant depression. RESULTS: African American men who were married/cohabiting only, employed only, or married/cohabiting, employed parents experienced lower levels of depressed mood, compared to African American women. Holding none of the roles under consideration in this study resulted in higher levels of depressive symptoms for African American women than for African American men. For diagnosable depression, the role combinations of married/cohabiting, employed and married/cohabiting, employed parent resulted in a lower probability of depression for African American men, compared to their female counterparts. Regardless of gender, role configurations that included employment produced the lowest levels of depressive symptoms and the lowest likelihood of clinically significant depression. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the pattern of findings showed that role configurations are important in shaping mental health for both African American men and women. Multiple role combinations that included employment make individuals less vulnerable to depressive symptoms and clinically significant depression. Having no roles (e.g., unmarried, unemployed, non-parent) was more problematic for the well-being of African American women compared to African American men, but not as detrimental to African American mental health as prior studies focused on other racial and ethnic groups have suggested.