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.