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Abstract
Police officers have the capacity to use legitimate force to attain compliance, and the gravity associated with officers’ decisions to use force has generated a number of studies of the influences on these decisions. Very few studies, however, have focused on the consequences that exposure to police use of force has on suspects. In this study, we use data collected from a nationally representative sample of prison inmates to examine whether exposure to police use of force during their arrest contributes to mental health problems among these inmates, after controlling for relevant covariates including pre-existing mental illness. Findings indicate inmates who were exposed to police use of force during their arrest experienced a greater number of manic and depressive symptoms than inmates who were not exposed to police use of force. The implications of our findings for correctional policy include a consideration of police use of force in needs assessment and recognition of the potential treatment needs of inmates exposed to police use of force during their arrest.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. In the extant research on police use of force, there is some conceptual ambiguity regarding what behaviours constitute police use of force (Kennison and Loumansky Citation2007). Despite this inconsistency, Garner et al. (Citation1995) observed that the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) definition of violence is consistent with the typical understanding of force. That is ‘behaviours by individuals that intentionally threaten, attempt, or inflict physical harm on others’ (Reiss and Roth Citation1993, p. 2). A number of studies of the correlates of police use of force have referenced the NAS’ definition as their conceptual benchmark (Terrill and Mastrofski Citation2002, Terrill Citation2003, Terrill and Reisig Citation2003, Paoline and Terrill Citation2004), while other studies have defined force in a manner consistent with the NAS definition without referencing this definition (Terrill et al. Citation2003, McCluskey et al. Citation2005, Terrill Citation2005, Paoline and Terrill Citation2007). For this study, we conceive of force in a manner that is consistent with the NAS’ definition of violence, and all references to force hereafter should be interpreted with this conceptualisation in mind.
2. Involvement in pleasurable activities by itself may not be an indicator of mania, however, of the 74% of inmates reporting at least one manic symptom, only 6% reported experiencing only involvement in pleasurable activities. Thus, the vast majority of inmates reporting manic symptoms were not simply experiencing increased involvement in pleasurable activities.
3. The items asking about an increase or decrease in functioning, appetite, sleep, and interest in sex were used to create both the mania and depression symptoms scales. Each item asked if inmates experienced a change in functioning, eating, and so forth, but the questions did not ask inmates to identify the direction (increase/decrease) of the change. In general, manic episodes would result in an increase in these items, while depression episodes would result in a decrease.
4. The measure of prior mental problems is a measure of receipt of services, and would not include any undiagnosed or untreated individuals with mental health problems. We recognise the limitation of this measure; however, the data-set does not contain any measures specifying a diagnosis or the presence of symptoms in the period prior to arrest/incarceration.
5. Although limited research has explored the effect of exposure to violence on manic symptoms specifically, research has demonstrated that trauma is associated with symptoms of mania (Van Nierop et al. Citation2015). In addition, much of the literature indicates that exposure to violence can be related to sleep disturbance(s), irritability, increased activity, and/or agitation (e.g., Spaccarelli et al. Citation1995, Clements et al. Citation2008, Fowler et al. Citation2009, Luthra et al. Citation2009, Finkelhor et al. Citation2011). These items are indicators included in the manic symptoms scale used in this study, but could also capture elements of a generalised anxiety disorder (American Psychiatric Association Citation2000).
6. It is worth reminding readers that the mental health outcomes were specifically phrased in terms of the period of the previous year. In addition, most items were worded to indicate an unusual change or increase/decrease in symptoms compared to usual functioning, and a reading of the questions would not seem to indicate long term stable patterns of mental illness (e.g., most questions included phrases such as more often than usual).
7. Potentially, inmates involved in a violent offence at the time of arrest may have experienced trauma from the violence associated with the offence, and not from police use of force. In addition, violence or trauma may be associated with the conditions of prison life or by victimisation at the hands of corrections officers. The data does not readily provide a means of identification for this possibility, so this could be an additional limitation of the findings.
