7 - Invisible Scars: Terry’s Psychological Toll

Summary

Chapter 7 lays out the mounting research documenting the negative consequences that flow from aggressive policing methods such as stop-and-frisk. While it’s uncontroverted that these stops increase distrust between police and communities, there are many additional harms. Researchers connect stop-and-frisks to lasting psychological distress, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. There’s even evidence to suggest aggressive stops will encourage some innocent victims to become offenders. In balancing the harms of these stops on one side of the scale in Terry v. Ohio, the Supreme Court makes two mistakes. First, Terry stops don’t merely fail to reduce crime; they increase the likelihood of future law-breaking. Second, most of the harms that flow from Terry stops never enter into the Court’s calculation. In fact, we now know that stop-and-frisks create trauma and the trauma spreads outwards, threatening the health and safety of whole communities.