Racial/ethnic disparities in the legal system in the United States (U.S.) have been well-documented (Hetey and Eberhardt, 2018). Black people experience the greatest number of negative consequences of personal and vicarious police contact compared to other racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. (Baćak and Nowotny, 2020; McFarland et al., 2018; Sewell and Jefferson, 2016). Furthermore, Black people are 3–4 times more likely to experience non-lethal use of force during police contact such as stop-and-frisk stops, and are more likely to report the police force used was “excessive” (Fryer, 2019; Motley et al., 2020). Frequently, the use of police force varies based on the socio-economic demographics of the neighborhood. Racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods are often targeted at disproportionately higher rates than predominantly White neighborhoods (Sewell and Jefferson, 2016).

Black people are treated with less respect than White people by police on routine stops (Epp et al., 2017) and police officers’ language and tone are less respectful toward Black people (Voigt et al., 2017). They are often targeted by the criminal justice system to a higher degree and are arrested at rates two to three times higher than White people (Mitchell and Caudy, 2015). Although Black people are not more likely than White people to use illicit drugs, they are more likely to be arrested or incarcerated for drug-related offenses (Ferrer and Connolly, 2018; Mitchell and Caudy, 2015). Black people were almost four times more likely than White people to be arrested for marijuana despite having similar usage rates (American Civil Liberties Union, 2019; Noonan et al., 2016). Black people are more likely to be stopped by police and searched compared to other racial/ethnic groups (Hetey and Eberhardt, 2018; Robinson, 2017). Given the high-profile police-related deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota in May 2020, Breonna Taylor in Louisville in March 2020, and Elijah McClain in August 2019 in Colorado, among others, and the ensuing mass demonstrations across the country, the disproportionate arrest and maltreatment of Black people in the criminal justice system have become a significant policy, political, and public health concern (Bell, 2020; Krohn and Fox, 2020). There is a critical need for research to inform the public discourse about police accountability and policy/public health initiatives to address such racial disparities in police-related deaths.

Research has shown that any contact with the criminal justice system has negative mental health implications and contributes to living in a “climate of fear” (Sewell and Jefferson, 2016). Even the vicarious witnessing of police violence through mediums such as social media has been found to increase negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear in Black emerging adults (Motley et al., 2020). Further, victims’ perception of “unfair treatment” that involves intrusive or unfair police stops has been associated with trauma and adverse mental health effects (Geller et al., 2014). Verbal harassment or physical force used during the interactions by police may be traumatic for the victim; traumas are known risk factors for mental health problems (Kleber, 2019). Thus, the negative consequences associated with experiencing arrest are of growing concern (Schuck, 2020).

Although arrest, conviction, and incarceration are known to have adverse impacts on the mental health of individuals (Sugie and Turney, 2017), there has been little research on the association of arrest with suicidal behaviors. Suicide rates in the U.S. have been rising consistently over the past two decades (Miron et al., 2019; Reger et al., 2020). A study by Drapeau and McInstosh (2018) showed that the age-adjusted suicide rate in 2018 was the highest since 1941, with racial disparities in suicidal behaviors being a major health/public health concern (Drapeau and McInstosh, 2018). Recent trends reveal disproportionate increases in suicidal behaviors among Black youth relative to other race/ethnic groups (Bridge et al., 2018; Lindsey et al., 2019). According to the Center for Disease Controls and Prevention, rates of completed suicide from Black youth and young adults age <25, increased from 3.4 deaths per 100,000 population in 2014 to 4.8 per 100,000 in 2019. For the same time period, rates for White youth and young adults increased from 5.7 per 100,000 to 6.7 per 100,000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2020). The increases among Black youth and young adults provided impetus to examine the contributions of police actions to this public health problem.

The aims of the current study were to (a) examine the association between any police arrest (i.e. lifetime arrest) and suicide ideation by race, using a nationally representative sample of Black and White young adults aged 24–32 years, and (b) to assess the association between marijuana related first arrest and suicide ideation. Suicidal ideation is known to consist of thoughts about self-destruction, including the idea that life is not worth living and plans to end one’s own life (Nock et al., 2008). Research shows that one in three people who report lifetime suicide ideation make a suicide plan, and nearly three in four of those with a plan make an actual suicide attempt (Dugas et al., 2012; Nock et al., 2008). As such, suicidal ideation is a strong predictor of subsequent suicide attempts, which suggests that it is imperative to identify pathways to ideation. Given the paucity of research on the interplay of police arrest and suicide ideation, and potential differences across racial/ethnic group, this study has strong potential to inform the public discourse on police accountability and the development of policy/public health measures. Findings from this study will, therefore, contribute to the achievement of the national public health goal to eliminate health disparities under the Healthy People 2030 (Johnson et al., 2020).