Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Racist police brutality has been systemic in Prince George's County, Maryland. The victims include African Americans, the mentally challenged, and immigrant populations, creating a complex and uneven public health impact. Three threads characterize the social movements and intervention since 1970. ⋯ Since the termination of DOJ oversight, disturbing developments suggest the need for continued and sustained activism. Since 2010, county police officers have fatally shot 21 people, several in questionable circumstances. At the same time, the Prince George's Police Department has received more tactical military weaponry than any other jurisdiction in the state of Maryland under the 1033 program of the National Defense Authorization Act.
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Housing instability has been shown to be related to poorer health outcomes in various studies, mainly in the USA and UK. Affected individuals are more prone to psychiatric (e.g., major depression, anxiety) and physical disorders (e.g., hypertension). This situation has deteriorated with the onset of the economic crisis. ⋯ In contrast, self-reported poor health was more prominent in later stages of foreclosure, such as in post-eviction without dation in payment stage in men (PRc = 2.24 [95 %CI = 1.35-3.72]). We observed a considerably higher prevalence of poor mental and self-reported health among male and female PAH members than in the general population. Public policies that tackle housing instability and its consequences are urgently needed in Spain.
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Widespread awareness of the recent deaths of several black males at the hands of police has revealed an unaddressed public health challenge-determining the root causes of excessive use of force by police applied to black males that may result in "justifiable homicides." The criminalization of black males has a long history in the USA, which has resulted in an increase in policing behaviors by legal authorities and created inequitable life chances for black males. Currently, the discipline of public health has not applied an intersectional approach that investigates the intersection of race and gender to understanding police behaviors that lead to "justifiable homicides" for black males. This article applies the core tenets and processes of Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to develop a framework that can improve research and interventions to address the disparities observed in recent trend analyses of "justifiable homicides." Accordingly, we use PHCRP to offer an alternative framework on the social, legal, and health implications of violence-related incidents. We aim to move the literature in this area forward to help scholars, policymakers, and activists build the capacity of communities to address the excessive use of force by police to reduce mortality rates from "justifiable homicides."
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Data on police stops can be examined to reflect on the relative "opacity" of these encounters and how aggregate patterns on the nature-not just the volume-of reported stops relate to public scrutiny of the police. We hypothesize that public scrutiny on police stops is positively related to the prevalence of opaque stop practices across dimensions of "intrusiveness," "rationale," and "setting" derived from agency records. We further argue that this relationship is influenced by neighborhood conditions in the form of concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and heterogeneity. ⋯ Results show considerable variation in indicators of opacity, particularly across precincts. More importantly, we also find that rates of complaints are higher in precincts that have more vaguely defined, intrusive stops. Results also suggest that concentrated disadvantage is independently and positively related with higher rates of public scrutiny of the police.
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Studies show that policing, when violent, and community fragmentation have a negative impact on health outcomes. This current study investigates the connection of policing and community fragmentation and public health. ⋯ Analysis of the perceptions of these factors suggests that violent policing increases community fragmentation and is a public health threat. Approaches to address this public health threat are discussed.