Police Violence and Public Health.

Despite their enormous potential impact on population health and health inequities, police violence and use of excessive force have only recently been addressed from a public health perspective. Moving to change this state of affairs, this article considers police violence in the USA within a social determinants and health disparities framework, highlighting recent literature linking this exposure to mental health symptoms, physical health conditions, and premature mortality. The review demonstrates that police violence is common in the USA; is disproportionately directed toward Black, Latinx, and other marginalized communities; and exerts a significant and adverse effect on a broad range of health outcomes. The state-sponsored nature of police violence, its embedding within a historical and contemporary context of structural racism, and the unique circumstances of the exposure itself make it an especially salient and impactful form of violence exposure, both overlapping with and distinct from other forms of violence. We conclude by noting potential solutions that clinical psychology and allied fields may offer toalleviate the impact of police violence, while simultaneously recognizing that a true solution to this issue requires a drastic reformation or replacement of the criminal justice system, as well as addressing the broader context of structural and systemic racism in the USA.

(Mis)Perceptions of the Use of Deadly Force by Police: Exploring the Role of Social Media Consumption.

Recent high-profile uses of deadly force by police in the United States and elsewhere have been the subject of extensive media coverage and social unrest. In turn, researchers have exhibited nascent interest in the factors that influence the use of deadly force by police, as well as vignette-driven studies of circumstances in which deadly force is believed to be acceptable. Less attention has been paid to perceptions of the frequency with which deadly force is used, proportion that is legal and necessary, to what extent its use varies by race, or how these beliefs are shaped by media consumption. Using survey methodology, we examine the perceptions of 458 respondents from the Southeastern United States in relation to the frequency with which deadly force is used, proportion that is legal and necessary, to what extent its use varies by race, and how these beliefs are shaped by social media consumption net of the effects of personal demographics and experiences. Our findings indicate the majority of respondents drastically overestimate both the frequency with which police use deadly force and the proportion of incidents involving suspects who are people of color, while underestimating the proportion of incidents that are legally justified and necessary. These perceptions are influenced, in part, by social media consumption but the effects vary in direction and significance by social media platform.

Does empathy undermine justice? Moderating the impact of empathic concern for a White policeman on responses to police interracial violence.

White participants completed a measure of White guilt and read a passage describing a White police officer who shot an unarmed Black man. The victim's Facebook page information and picture indicated that he engaged in stereotypical or counterstereotypical activities in his everyday life. Participants then reported their empathic concern for the officer, perceptions of whether they thought the officer had racist motives for his actions, and their perceptions regarding the appropriate punishment for the officer. For the stereotypical victim, regardless of White guilt level, greater empathy for the officer was associated with lower perceived officer racism and less punitive responding towards the officer. In the counterstereotypical condition, the inverse association between officer empathy and the central outcome variables (perceived racism and punitive responding) was reduced for high White guilt participants. Thus, under certain conditions feelings of White guilt reduce the likelihood that empathic responding towards the officer leads to greater 'punitive leniency' for his harmful actions towards a disadvantaged group member.

The Role of a Forensic Pathologist in Armed Conflict.

Wars and armed conflicts by their very nature are cruel and ruthless. In the 17th century, the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, widely regarded as the father of public international law, wrote in The Rights of War and Peace Book 3, Chapter 1:VI that "wars, for the attainment of their objects, it cannot be denied, must employ force and terror as their most proper agents." A forensic pathologist can play a crucial role in armed conflicts because of the unique training that he or she receives, including examination of human remains to determine both the cause and manner of death, and discussing the mechanism of death. Although the obvious role, then, would be to perform exhumation autopsies in mass killings or genocides, being a physician, a forensic pathologist is also uniquely qualified to evaluate and document physical torture, use of excessive force, and use of chemical weapons, as well as violation of medical neutrality in armed conflicts based on prevailing laws and conventions. Most of the investigations this author has conducted, including investigation of Rwanda and Bosnia genocides, violation of medical neutrality and use of excessive force in Bahrain and the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, searching for mass graves in post-Saddam Iraq, documenting mass graves in Bamiyan as well as Dash-t-Layli in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban, and conducting local area capacity assessment in Libya after the fall of Colonel Gadhafi were all sponsored and logistically supported by nongovernmental organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights (USA).