• Dustin T Duncan, Su Hyun Park, Christoffer Dharma, Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, Jessica Contreras, Roberta Scheinmann, Kim Watson, Cristina Herrera, John A Schneider, Maria Khan, Sahnah Lim, Chau Trinh-Shevrin, and Asa Radix.
• Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168Th Street, Room 715, New York, NY, 10032, USA. dd3018@columbia.edu.
• J Urban Health. 2024 Jun 1; 101 (3): 557570557-570.

AbstractTransgender women of color (TWOC) experience high rates of police violence and victimization compared to other sexual and gender minority groups, as well as compared to other White transgender and cisgender women. While past studies have demonstrated how frequent police harassment is associated with higher psychological distress, the effect of neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence on TWOC's mental health is rarely studied. In this study, we examine the association between neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence with psychological distress among TWOC. Baseline self-reported data are from the TURNNT ("Trying to Understand Relationships, Networks and Neighborhoods among Transgender Woman of Color") Cohort Study (analytic n = 303). Recruitment for the study began September 2020 and ended November 2022. Eligibility criteria included being a TWOC, age 18-55, English- or Spanish-speaking, and planning to reside in the New York City metropolitan area for at least 1 year. In multivariable analyses, neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence were associated with psychological distress. For example, individuals who reported medium levels of neighborhood police violence had 1.15 [1.03, 1.28] times the odds of experiencing psychological distress compared to those who experienced low levels of neighborhood police violence. Our data suggest that neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence were associated with increased psychological distress among TWOC. Policies and programs to address neighborhood police violence (such as body cameras and legal consequences for abusive officers) may improve mental health among TWOC.© 2024. The New York Academy of Medicine.

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