eprintid: 10204708 rev_number: 6 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/20/47/08 datestamp: 2025-02-13 09:38:13 lastmod: 2025-02-13 09:38:13 status_changed: 2025-02-13 09:38:13 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Kyprianides, Arabella creators_name: Bradford, Ben title: Policing and mental health: A rapid evidence assessment of the patterning of police activity ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: F52 keywords: Policing, mental health, review note: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). abstract: Existing evidence suggests exposure to police activity negatively impacts the mental health of the policed. But research on whether, and why, police activity is correlated with the prevalence of mental health challenges among individuals and in specific areas remains piecemeal. We conducted a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) of the literature examining the association between policing and mental health, with a focus on investigating whether people in poor mental health are more likely to interact with police, whether police activity is higher in areas where people face more mental health challenges, and the reasons for these interactions. A total of 31 studies exploring the scale and reach of police encounters involving individuals dealing with mental health issues were included. The evidence suggests a pattern of heightened policing activity in specific geographic areas where individuals contend with elevated mental health challenges, and police spend more time dealing with individuals with mental health issues compared to the general population. These interactions occur for a wide variety of reasons, and people with mental health conditions encounter the police as victims, offenders, people in need and in other roles. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. date: 2025-01-30 date_type: published publisher: SAGE Publications official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258x251318210 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2360240 doi: 10.1177/0032258x251318210 lyricists_name: Bradford, Benjamin lyricists_id: BBRAD76 actors_name: Bradford, Benjamin actors_id: BBRAD76 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles issn: 0032-258X citation: Kyprianides, Arabella; Bradford, Ben; (2025) Policing and mental health: A rapid evidence assessment of the patterning of police activity. The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles 10.1177/0032258x251318210 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258x251318210>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204708/1/kyprianides-bradford-2025-policing-and-mental-health-a-rapid-evidence-assessment-of-the-patterning-of-police-activity%5B43%5D.pdf