MOVELab Member LaVonya Bennett presents at APA 2018
LaVonya Bennett, along with Ben Heddy, presented at the 2018 American Psychological Association Convention with their research on police brutality and the role insidious trauma. They explored this phenomenon through critical race theory and an intersectionality theoretical frameworks.
Abstract
Existing literature has explored the actions and perceptions of police (Chaney & Robertson, 2013; Aymer, 2016; Hall, Hall, & Perry, 2016, Staggers-Hakim, 2016), the effects of oppression (Comas-Diaz, 2000), and racial trauma (Carter, 2007; Comas-Diaz, 2016; Harper, 2012). However, the literature has yet to explicitly explore the relationships between primary or secondary viewings of police enacted violence and the presence of trauma-like symptoms across diverse, intersectional, and marginalized individuals. Our study utilizes survey data from Black, White, Asian, Latinx, American Indian, Muslim, LGBTQ+, straight, men, women, gender queer, gender non-confirming, people with politically diverse ideologies, and other demographics to (1) identify the relationships between demographic variables to trauma (2) explore the relationship between increased trauma and identity, and (3) explore relationships between police brutality and identity. This study uses regression analyses in a critical quantitative methodological paradigm (Teranishi, 2007) within a theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings, 1998; Patton, 2016) to collectively examine the similarities and differences of psychological well-being in the United States current police state. To gather an intersectional participant demographic we utilized a social media snowball method and Amazon MechanicalTurk. The implications from our findings (1) nuance the monolithic relationships different marginalized populations have in relation to perceived or actual police brutality, (2) contextualize the experience with trauma for individuals with multiple, marginalized, and salient identities, and (3) emphasize the role of activism in relationship to psychological well being. This research is important to the field of psychology because this specific inquiry is understudied, despite the growing, overt concerns of police brutality. Moreover, as traumatology research continues to understand trauma from a more inclusive paradigm, our study contributes to the growing literature of insidious trauma. The findings from our study will be valuable for vast populations that interact with marginalized populations who have experienced or witnessed police brutality including: counselors, professors, university administrators, law enforcement, and more.
LaVonya Bennett (she, her, hers)
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