Mental and behavioral health characteristics among individuals injuriously shot by police in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Criminalization of people experiencing mental illness is systemic, but the conditions surrounding police use-of-force in such encounters are under-examined.

Aims

To describe mental or behavioral health (MBH) involvement in injurious shootings by U.S. police compared with MBH-uninvolved shootings.

Methods

Using a 2015-2020 dataset developed from manual review of injurious shootings by police compiled from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) (n = 10,615), we identified 2454 people shot in MBH-involved encounters. Through further review, we classified the MBH conditions and behaviors involved. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models, we compared characteristics of injured people, presenting conditions, and responses.

Results

Twenty

SUBMITTER: Ward JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12721205 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature