Associations between Experiences of Police Contact and Discrimination by the Police and Courts and Health Outcomes in a Representative Sample of Adults in New York City

Communities marginalized because of racism, heterosexism, and other systems of oppression have a history of being aggressively policed, and in those contexts, researchers have observed associations between a range of negative experiences with police and poor physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes. However, past studies have been limited in that experiences of police contacts were aggregated at the neighborhood level and, if police contacts were self-reported, the sample was not representative. To address these limitations, we employed NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 2017 Social Determinants of Health Survey (n = 2335) data to examine the associations of self-reported police contacts and discrimination by police and the courts with measures of physical (poor physical health), mental (poor mental health, serious psychological distress), and behavioral health (binge drinking). Residents marginalized because of racial, ethnic, and sexual minority status were more likely to be stopped, searched, or questioned by the police; threatened or abused by the police; and discriminated against by the police or in the courts; those experiences were associated with poor physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes. The associations between experiences with police and poor health outcomes were strongest among Black residents and residents aged 25–44. Our findings suggest that the health of NYC residents who have had exposure to police and experienced discrimination by the police and courts is poorer than those who have not, and build on a growing body of evidence that aggressive policing practices have implications for public health.

Tactical and psychological context of communication between a police officer and offenders.

The article reveals the features of the tactical and psychological context of communication between police officers and offenders. Сommunication processes play an important role in the activities of the National Police of Ukraine. In this regard, it is expedient to impose certain requirements on the communicative competence of the personnel of the National Police of Ukraine. The essence of the problem of professional communication of a police officer, modern approaches to the definition of «tactical and psychological context of communication» are revealed. The principles of professional training levels are characterized. Tactical and psychological context of communication is the implementation in a particular situation of a communication strategy based on mastery of techniques and knowledge of the rules of communication. Communication technique is a set of specific communication skills: speaking and listening. The essential characteristics of communication causes of conflicts are presented. However, officers spend much more time talking to complainants, witnesses, suspects, and the public at large than they do engaging in tactical encounters, although all police contacts involve some degree of proper tactics. Clearly, the relationship between the two must be understood. Emphasis is placed on the indicative and predicative process of communication. It is proved that the effective interaction of police officers with citizens is the key to ensuring an appropriate level of public safety in society. The complex of issues of content, organization and provision of ways of psychological training includes issues of its management, planning, determining the content of psychological training, organization and methods of conducting psychological training, accounting and evaluation of results achieved in psychological training, personnel, logistics and scientific providing psychological training.

Racial Differences in Co-Offending: Correlations With Concurrent Juvenile Police Contacts and Predictions of Future Adult Police Contacts

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relationship between co-offending and offense seriousness varied by race and whether similarities in age (juvenile, adult) and race (white, non-white) augmented the frequency and severity of future offending in co-offending males. Analyzing 15,059 incidents of police contact involving male juvenile participants from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort (PBC II) and the records of 7,420 male participants from the PBC II, a stronger co-offending–offense seriousness relationship was noted in the juvenile police contacts of non-white participants, whereas similarity between co-offenders led to increased adult police contacts in non-white but not white participants. These results suggest that juvenile co-offending may operate along social learning lines in non-white, if not white, youth.

Good Policing

This book conveys the ideas behind procedural justice theory as they apply to policing. It sets out important but complex ideas in jargon-free language to non-specialist readers with an interest in policing – including serving police officers and police recruits as they embark on a degree-level entry programme into the police service. The book’s main message is that public trust in the police builds police legitimacy, and people comply with the law and cooperate with the police when they see the police as legitimate. It argues that public trust in the police serves as the bedrock of police legitimacy. Procedural justice theory provides an account of the reasons why people obey the law that stresses the importance of fair and respectful treatment of the public, and an alignment between policing practice and people’s moral standards. It provides a narrative about crime control that questions the tough ‘no-nonsense’ solutions that politicians often reach for when crime problems emerge. The book’s main policy recommendations are that policing strategies and tactics should always be assessed against criteria of legitimacy, and that the quality of treatment in police contacts with the public is one of the keys to good policing.

The Usual, Racialized, Suspects: The Consequence of Police Contacts with Black and White Youth on Adult Arrest

Research on race and policing indicates that Black Americans experience a greater frequency of police contacts, discretionary stops, and police harassment when stops occur. Yet, studies examining the long-term consequences of police contact with young people have not examined whether criminal justice consequences of police contact differ by race. We address this issue by examining whether police encounters with children and adolescents predict arrest in young adulthood and if these effects are the same for Black and White individuals. The paper uses longitudinal survey data from 331 Black and White respondents enrolled in the Seattle Public School District as eighth graders in 2001 and 2002. Our findings indicate that police encounters in childhood increase the risk of arrest in young adulthood for Black but not White respondents. Black respondents who experience contact with the police by the eighth grade have eleven times greater odds of being arrested when they are 20 years old than their White counterparts.

Establishing the “Arreglo”

How do clandestine relationships emerge between police agents and drug dealers? Drawing on documentary evidence, this chapter examines the “foundational negotiations” of these arrangements or “arreglos.” It then reconstructs the case of Los Vagones, an organization that sells drugs in the slums outside Buenos Aires, detailing how it not only pays its police contacts for protection but also engages in the regular exchange of goods and information to evade prosecution. Through a rich description of these clandestine interactions, it shows how relationships of collusion evolve and power dynamics shift over time.

Race, Place, and Effective Policing

The police need public support and cooperation to be effective in controlling crime and holding offenders accountable. In many disadvantaged communities of color, poor relationships between the police and residents undermine effective policing. Weak police–minority community relationships are rooted in a long history of discriminatory practices and contemporary proactive policing strategies that are overly aggressive and associated with racial disparities. There are no simple solutions to address the complex rift between the police and the minority communities that they serve. The available evidence suggests that there are policies and practices that could improve police–minority community relations and enhance police effectiveness. Police departments should conduct more sophisticated analysis of crime problems to ensure that crime-control programs are not indiscriminate and unfocused, engage residents in their crime reduction efforts by revitalizing community policing, ensure procedurally just police contacts with citizens, and implement problem-solving strategies to prevent crimes beyond surveillance and enforcement actions.

Formal Social Control in Changing Neighborhoods: Racial Implications of Neighborhood Context on Reactive Policing

Public reports to the police are a key component of the formal social control process and have distinct interracial dynamics. This study examines the relationship between incident severity, neighborhood context, and participant race and patterns in the determination of probable cause and arrest in reactive police contacts. We utilize a complete record of police incidents in Seattle, Washington from 2008 through 2012 including information on race of reporters and targets and type of offense. These data are matched to longitudinal tract–level census data to evaluate how incident outcomes relate to neighborhood change. Results indicate that black targets are more frequently subject to arrest overall, particularly in changing neighborhoods and when reporters are white. For nuisance crimes such as public disturbances, probable cause is found more often for white reporters but less often in changing neighborhoods.