Policing as a Social Determinant of Health: How Death by Law Enforcement Impacts Community Health in the Time of COVID-19 Open Access

Abstract

Policing is an ever-present facet of many communities' daily life. As COVID-19 roars on, policing has not been studied empirically regarding its impact on the health of those in highly surveilled communities during the pandemic. To gauge the impact of this ever-present arm of the criminal legal system, I examine how surveillance relates to COVID-19 mortality rates by zip code in Georgia. To qualify this relationship, I rely on the paradigm of surveillance stress, which is defined as how technologies of institutionalized surveillance cause a strain on those implicated. This paradigm allows me to further consider how policing acts as a social determinant of health during this public health crisis. Weighted linear and logistic regression models as well as interaction effects allow me to assess the associations between exposures to lethal and routine policing and COVID-19 mortality rates. Using data pulled from the medical records of each trauma patient admitted to Grady Hospital from 2016-2021 and the Georgia Department of Public Health at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I examine how legal intervention deaths and injuries are associated with COVID-19 mortality and other health conditions. Using interaction modeling, I find that individuals living in zip codes with at least one legal intervention death are 10% more likely to die of COVID-19 with each additional health condition they have.

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1

Background…… .............................................................................................................................3

Research Desgin...............................................................................................................................8

Methods ...........................................................................................................................................9

Data .....................................................................................................................................9

Variables of Interest...........................................................................................................10

Sample............................................................................................................................................11

Statistical Analysis.........................................................................................................................13

Results ...........................................................................................................................................14

Discussion .....................................................................................................................................17

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20

Works Cited...................................................................................................................................21

Appendix A: Tables.......................................................................................................................25

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Sociology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Sociology, Criminology and Penology Statistics Health Sciences, Public Health
Keyword	COVID-19 Surveillance Stress Policing
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Alyasah Sewell, Emory University
Committee Members	David Edwards, Emory University Sonal Nalkur , Emory University

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