Exposure to community violence versus overpolicing and PTSD among African American university students

ABSTRACT

Whether being stopped by the police is a stronger predictor of PTSD compared to being victimized by community violence was explored in a sample of 301 African American university students attending a historically Black university (HBCU). During a six-week window, a convenience sample was recruited from the spring semester roster of enrolled students at a southern HBCU for an online, cross-sectional survey. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses were performed. Scores on Foa and Capaldi’s PTSD Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 and the item “having been stopped by the police” as well as items measuring community violence “being chased, or seeing someone being chased by an individual or group of people,” from Richters and Saltzman’s Survey of Exposure to Community Violence—Self-Report version, were compared. Over one-third (34.3%) of the sample reported having been chased by individuals or groups of individuals in the community, and most students (70.9%) reported having been stopped by the police at least once. Being stopped by the police five or six times predicted significant PTSD scores and was a stronger predictor of elevated PTSD scores than being chased by individuals in the community (odds ratio = 4.602, p =.029 versus odds ratio = 1.173, p =.004). These African American students are at risk for overpolicing and experiencing violence in the community. However, being stopped by the police poses a greater risk to the students’ development of PTSD than living in a violent community.

KEYWORDS:

• Overpolicing
• neighborhood violence
• African American
• university students
• PTSD