Exploring Minority Youths' Police Encounters: A Qualitative Interpretive Meta-Synthesis

Background and Purpose: The exploration of police-civilian encounters is of increasing importance in the wake of recent high profile police killings of Black people such as Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, John Crawford III, and many others. Youth, defined as persons between the ages of 10 and 24 have the most involuntary contact with police officers; their deaths due to police shootings are particularly troubling. Social workers are involved with minority youth living in neighborhoods disproportionately targeted for proactive policing (i.e., using broad police discretion to “target” those most likely to be engaged in criminal activity before criminal acts become apparent). Understanding the experiences of minority youth who encounter police officers is of critical concern for social workers in many practice and research areas.  In order to meet this social justice need, social workers must examine how a minority person’s perception of the police is formed. The purpose of this meta-synthesis was to capture these experiences and enhance understanding through the experiences of minority youth.

Method: Qualitative Interpretive Meta-Synthesis (QIMS) is a systematic approach to synthesis of qualitative studies developed specifically for social work and is consonant with the profession’s values and goals. We searched multiple databases to identify relevant qualitative studies in numerous academic fields.  Title and basic searches were completed for the topical terms coupled with methodological terms. Inclusion criteria for this study included studies that (1) were published in peer-reviewed journals, theses, or dissertations; (2) were published in English; (3) sampled minority youth in the United States; (4) were dated after the mid-1980’s; and (5) were conducted using qualitative methods in whole or part of a mixed methods design. The topical criterion was the experiences, perceptions or attitudes of minority youth of police encounters. The search yielded 1,226 potentially relevant studies. Title review eliminated 981 studies, many of which were duplicates, narrowing the search to 245 studies that could not be eliminated based on title alone.  Abstract review eliminated 237 studies because they failed to meet inclusion criteria, most frequently because they were quantitative, but also because they were not specifically related to minority youth experiences; they were studies outside the United States; or they were policy-related rather than experiential.  This narrowed the sample to eight articles that met the inclusion criteria for topic and method and describe the experiences of 337 minority youths (12-23 years old) in four geographical locations (Philadelphia, New York City, Oakland, and St. Louis), and five research studies.

Results: Four themes were identified: dangerous, controlling, prejudiced, and ineffective. Further reduction of these themes resulted in an overarching theme that captures the essences of these youth’s experiences: dehumanization.

Conclusions and Implications: These results enhance understanding of minority youth experience with police officers and, thus, inform social work advocacy efforts around this issue in both practice and research arenas.