Deaths of people with mental illness during interactions with law enforcement

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
Amam Z SalehMelanie Wall

Abstract

Accounts of killings of civilians by police in the United States (U.S.) have attracted considerable public attention. In this study, using all civilian deaths (N = 1099) in the U.S. in 2015, compiled independently by The Washington Post and The Guardian newspapers, we identified characteristics of each interaction between the police and the deceased, such as whether the decedent was armed. We expanded the database to include systemic factors possibly related to these deaths, and examined death rates by demographics, presence of mental illness, and state-level predictors. Twenty-three percent (251 of 1099) of individuals killed during interactions with police in 2015 displayed signs of a mental illness. Race (African-American [RR = 2.57] compared to non-Hispanic Whites [95% CI 2.08-3.18]) and presence of mental illness (RR = 7.16 compared to no mental illness, 95% CI 6.21-8.25) were strongly associated with such fatalities. Individuals with mental illness were more likely to be armed with a knife (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 2.1-4.6), and were more likely to have been killed at home (OR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.9-4.0). The death rates for persons with evidence of mental illness during interactions with police are high. Our finding that many persons...Continue Reading

Citations

May 20, 2020·Academic Psychiatry : the Journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry·Amanda J Calhoun
Apr 10, 2021·International Journal of Law and Psychiatry·Linus WittmannCandelaria Mahlke
Apr 24, 2021·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Amy C WatsonMichael T Compton
Sep 25, 2021·Psychological Medicine·Q SeonA Brunet
Nov 5, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Bennett AllenDenise Paone
Dec 17, 2021·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Nev JonesMichelle Munson

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