As a series of police shootings sparked protests and a national reckoning on race this summer, Emory sociologist Alyasah Ali Sewell published a paper on the consequences that police violence has on the health of residents in neighborhoods where it occurs.
Previous research has repeatedly shown aggressive policing exacts a mental toll on men. By examining a decade's worth of New York City vital records, Sewell and sociologists from the University of Maryland found a greater risk of high blood pressure and obesity for all neighborhood residents where lethal police violence occurred, and a greater risk of obesity for women.
And the women residents faced a 30 to 54 percent greater risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity compared to men.
