Intersecting Inequities: Racism-Based Police Violence and Mental Health Correlates Among Black and Hispanic Emerging Adults with Disabilities

Background: Racism-based police violence (RPV) is increasingly recognized as a structural determinant of mental health inequities among Black and Hispanic emerging adults. Concurrently, people with disabilities—particularly those with cognitive and multiple disabilities—are disproportionately represented in police-related injuries and fatalities. Yet no studies have examined how RPV exposure relates to psychological distress and suicide risk among Black and Hispanic emerging adults living with disabilities. Grounded in an intersectional public health framework, this study investigates how racialized policing and disability-related vulnerability jointly shape mental health outcomes.

Methods: Data were drawn from a national nonprobability sample of 934 Black and Hispanic adults ages 18–29 recruited using quota sampling aligned with U.S. Census benchmarks. Participants completed validated measures of lifetime RPV exposure across three domains (victimization, in-person witnessing, and media exposure), disability status (sensory, physical, cognitive, double, triple), everyday discrimination, psychological distress (K10), suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Linear and logistic regression models assessed associations between RPV exposure and mental health outcomes while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and non–police-related racism-based discrimination. Interaction terms tested whether disability status moderated RPV effects.

Results: All three RPV exposure domains were significantly associated with greater psychological distress and higher odds of suicidal ideation. RPV-Witness and RPV-Media exposure were additionally associated with increased odds of suicide attempts. Cognitive, double, and triple disabilities were strong independent predictors of psychological distress and suicide risk across models. Participants with triple disabilities reported the highest levels of RPV exposure, distress, and suicide attempts. Although limited attenuation effects emerged for psychological distress, no significant interactions were observed for suicide-related outcomes, indicating additive and compounding risk rather than multiplicative effects.

Conclusions and Implications: This study documents intersecting inequities in which RPV exposure and disability-related vulnerability independently and cumulatively heighten psychological distress and suicide risk among Black and Hispanic emerging adults. Cognitive, double, and triple disabilities were consistently associated with elevated mental health risk, and RPV exposure—particularly indirect exposure—was linked to both distress and suicidality.

These findings highlight how structural forces, including racialized policing and ableism, shape mental health outcomes among populations already facing disproportionate risk. Social work research at the service of democracy requires rigorous examination of how public systems—including policing and mental health infrastructures—affect the safety and well-being of marginalized communities.

For practice, findings underscore the need for trauma-informed and disability-inclusive suicide prevention strategies. For policy, results support continued evaluation of policing practices and crisis response systems that disproportionately affect individuals with cognitive and multiple disabilities. Advancing the common good requires public systems that reduce preventable harm and promote equitable mental health outcomes across intersecting identities.