Amanda Geller, New York University

About the Presentation

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to assess the implications of police contact for adolescent mental health and health disparities. Examining three teen-reported symptom scales (for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder), I find that personal experience with the police was associated with more symptoms of all three conditions. Findings suggest that police contact not only operates as a driver of adverse health outcomes, but threatens to exacerbate health disparities across the life course.

About the Speaker

Amanda Geller is Clinical Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University. Dr. Geller’s research examines the interactions between criminal justice policy and socioeconomic disadvantage, and their joint effects on urban neighborhoods, families, and individuals. She focuses primarily on police-public interactions, and on the role of incarceration in urban families. She also researches methodological issues surrounding data collection related to both policing and incarceration. She has a Ph.D. in Social Policy Analysis from Columbia University.