Theories of stress and strain, which emphasize the concentration of social stressors among vulnerable groups, suggest that police contact—the most common type of criminal justice contact—can have deleterious health consequences. Research documents a relationship between police contact and adverse health, but less is known about the mental health consequences of police stops among adolescents. I examined this with data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,437), a longitudinal survey of individuals born around the turn of the 21st century and followed over a 15-year period. First, personal police contact and vicarious but not personal police contact (both compared to no police contact) are positively associated with depressive symptoms, net of characteristics associated with police contact (including prior mental health, delinquency, and impulsivity). Second, more intrusive police contact (such as stops that include frisks or searches) is positively associated with depressive symptoms. Third, the association between police contact and depressive symptoms is concentrated among girls and Blacks. Given the concentration of police contact among already vulnerable adolescents living in highly surveilled and disadvantaged neighborhoods, those same adolescents at greatest risk of health impairments, police contact may exacerbate population health disparities.

压力和压力理论强调了社会压力因素在弱势群体中的集中度，这表明警察接触是刑事司法接触中最常见的一种，会对健康造成不利影响。研究记录了警察联系与不良健康之间的关系，但对于青少年停靠警察对心理健康的影响知之甚少。我使用脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究（N = 3,437）的数据对此进行了检验，该研究是对21世纪初左右出生并持续15年的个人进行的纵向调查。首先，与警察联系相关的特征（包括先前的心理健康，犯罪和冲动）。其次，与警察的接触更加紧密（例如，包括打fr或搜查的中止站）与抑郁症状呈正相关。第三，警察接触与抑郁症状之间的关联主要集中在女孩和黑人之间。鉴于警察接触集中在生活在受到高度监视和处境不利的社区中的本来就脆弱的青少年中，这些青少年的健康受损风险最大，因此警察接触可能加剧人口健康差距。