Dartmouth Events

Katie will discuss research widely documents that Americans of color, and especially Black Americans, are subject to disproportionately high levels of police targeting, use of force, and police murder because of their racial identities. We know relatively less about policing experiences when the police are meant to provide care, such as when police respond to mental health calls and suicidal crises. Using 102 interviews with suicide survivors—those who have considered and/or attempted suicide—I answer the following questions: What is it like for someone in a suicidal crisis to encounter a police officer? How do these interactions unfold, and what are their consequences? Using survivors’ accounts, I demonstrate that institutional racism in the criminal justice system doles out harm to survivors of color while providing either neutral, or in a few cases, seemingly beneficial outcomes for white survivors when police are tapped to respond to mental health crises. In this way, mental health crisis response treats white survivors primarily as patients and survivors of color primarily as criminals. I conclude by exploring the less visible negative health consequences of police interactions in general, which I argue render criminal justice responses for the purpose of health care irreconcilable.