Rollins professor collaborates on special journal issue on to address health effects of excessive police violence

Hannah Cooper, ScD, associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory’s Rollins School of Public, and Mindy Fullilove, MD, a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, are editors of a special issue of the Journal of Urban Health that critically examines excessive police violence as a public health issue. The issue was developed in response to a series of widely-reported deaths and sexual assaults of Black children and adults by police in the United States.

Throughout the special issue, researchers examine the health effects of excessive police-related violence using multiple measures of police violence, outcomes, and methods with different populations living in different settings. They also explore and provide recommendations for possible solutions. All papers converge on the conclusion that living in conditions of excessive police violence adversely affects health.  

"With the exception of research and interventions with active drug users and sex workers, public health has rarely studied or intervened in excessive police violence as a social determinant of health," says Cooper.  "I am encouraged that this special issue will be the gateway to continued public health research and interventions that will help eliminate excessive police violence."