Police stops increase later delinquency through psychological distress among minority youth

Evidence

Contact with the police can also set into motion a process that can change a person’s life trajectory. Research by Del Toro and colleagues (2019) shows that being stopped by police predicts additional criminal behavior six to eighteen months later among Black and Latino male youth, even independent of prior delinquency. This was especially true among younger youth: the younger the boy was when he was first stopped by police, the larger the increase in delinquent behavior six months later. This relationship was partially driven by psychological distress, illustrating that the interactions police have with the community, and particularly with those who are marginalized and vulnerable, can have long-lasting effects on people’s life trajectories, even when those contacts do not result in an arrest. Moreover, these types of effects are counterproductive, cutting against law enforcement’s own objective to lower crime. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 380

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 380