Rats distinguish between absence of events and lack of evidence in contingency learning.

The goal of three experiments was to study whether rats are aware of the difference between absence of events and lack of evidence. We used a Pavlovian extinction paradigm in which lights consistently signaling sucrose were suddenly paired with the absence of sucrose. The crucial manipulation involved the absent outcomes in the extinction phase. Whereas in the Cover conditions, access to the drinking receptacle was blocked by a metal plate, in the No Cover conditions, the drinking receptacle was accessible. The Test phase showed that in the Cover conditions, the measured expectancies of sucrose were clearly at a higher level than in the No Cover conditions. We compare two competing theories potentially explaining the findings. A cognitive theory interprets the observed effect as evidence that the rats were able to understand that the cover blocked informational access to the outcome information, and therefore the changed learning input did not necessarily signify a change of the underlying contingency in the world. An alternative associationist account, renewal theory, might instead explain the relative sparing of extinction in the Cover condition as a consequence of context change. We discuss the merits of both theories as accounts of our data and conclude that the cognitive explanation is in this case preferred

Public health critical race praxis at the intersection of traffic stops and injury epidemiology

Background: Law enforcement traffic stops are one of the most common entryways to the US justice system. Conventional frameworks suggest traffic stops promote public safety by reducing dangerous driving practices and non-vehicular crime with little to no collateral damage to individuals and communities. Critical frameworks interrogate these assumptions, identifying significant individual and community harms that disparately impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities. Methods: The Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) and multi-level frameworks from community anti-racist training were combined into a structured diagram to guide intervention and research teams in contrasting conventional and critical perspectives on traffic stops. The diagram divides law enforcement and drivers/residents as two separate agent types that interact during traffic stops. These two agent types have different conventional and critical histories, priorities, and perspectives at multiple levels, including individual, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. Conventional solutions (identifying explicitly racist officers, “meet-a-cop” programs, police interaction training for drivers) are born from conventional frameworks (rewarding crime prevention regardless of cost, the war on drugs saves lives, driver behavior perfectionism). While conventional perspectives focus on individual and interpersonal levels, critical perspectives more deeply acknowledge dynamics at institutional and cultural levels. Critical solutions may be hard to discover without critical frameworks, including that law enforcement creates measurable collateral damage and disparate social control effects; neighborhood patrol priorities can be set without community self-determination or accountability and may trump individual and interpersonal dynamics; and the war on drugs is highly racialized and disproportionally enforced through traffic stop programs. Conclusions: Traffic stop enforcement and crash prevention programs that do not deeply and critically consider these dynamics at multiple levels, not just law enforcement-driver interactions at the individual and interpersonal levels, may be at increased risk of propagating histories of BIPOC discrimination. In contrast, public health and transportation researchers and practitioners engaged in crash and injury prevention strategies that employ law enforcement should critically consider disparate history and impacts of law enforcement in BIPOC communities. PHCRP, anti-racism frameworks, and the included diagram may assist them in organizing critical thinking about research studies, interventions, and impacts

Re-prioritizing traffic stops to reduce motor vehicle crash outcomes and racial disparities

Background: Law enforcement traffic stops are one of the most common entryways to the US justice system. Conventional frameworks suggest traffic stops promote public safety by reducing dangerous driving practices and non-vehicular crime. Law enforcement agencies have wide latitude in enforcement, including prioritization of stop types: (1) safety (e.g. moving violation) stops, (2) investigatory stops, or (3) economic (regulatory and equipment) stops. In order to prevent traffic crash fatalities and reduce racial disparities, the police department of Fayetteville, North Carolina significantly re-prioritized safety stops. Methods: Annual traffic stop, motor vehicle crash, and crime data from 2002 to 2016 were combined to examine intervention (2013-2016) effects. Fayetteville was compared against synthetic control agencies built from 8 similar North Carolina agencies by weighted matching on pre-intervention period trends and comparison against post-intervention trends. Results: On average over the intervention period as compared to synthetic controls, Fayetteville increased both the number of safety stops + 121% (95% confidence interval + 17%, + 318%) and the relative proportion of safety stops (+ 47%). Traffic crash and injury outcomes were reduced, including traffic fatalities - 28% (- 64%, + 43%), injurious crashes - 23% (- 49%, + 16%), and total crashes - 13% (- 48%, + 21%). Disparity measures were reduced, including Black percent of traffic stops - 7% (- 9%, - 5%) and Black vs. White traffic stop rate ratio - 21% (- 29%, - 13%). In contrast to the Ferguson Effect hypothesis, the relative de-prioritization of investigatory stops was not associated with an increase in non-traffic crime outcomes, which were reduced or unchanged, including index crimes - 10% (- 25%, + 8%) and violent crimes - 2% (- 33%, + 43%). Confidence intervals were estimated using a different technique and, given small samples, may be asymmetrical. Conclusions: The re-prioritization of traffic stop types by law enforcement agencies may have positive public health consequences both for motor vehicle injury and racial disparity outcomes while having little impact on non-traffic crime

Mass probation: Temporal and geographic correlation of county-level probation rates & mental health in North Carolina

High community incarceration rates are associated with worse community mental health. However, it remains unknown whether higher rates of probation, a form of criminal legal community supervision, are similarly associated with worse community mental health. Our objective was to evaluate temporal and geographic correlations of county-level probation and mental health rates separately and to assess the association between county-level probation and mental health rates, measured by self-inflicted injury and suicide. We performed ecological analyses using North Carolina administrative data (2009–2019) and used repeated cross-section, multivariable spatial error models. From 2009 to 2019, probation rates trended downward while self-inflicted injury and suicide remained stable. We found positive spatial autocorrelation suggesting that there are spatial determinants of probation and self-harm, though less so for suicide. Hot spot analyses showed local variation with high self-harm and suicide rates being clustered in rural Western North Carolina and high probation rates being clustered in rural Eastern North Carolina. Probation was positively associated with self-inflicted injury and suicide. For example, in 2018, a 1 percentage point increase in probation was associated with a 0.05 percentage point increase in self-harm in 2019 (95% CI: 0.03, 0.06), meaning that in a county of 100,000 people, an increase in 1000 county residents being on probation would be associated with an increase in 50 self-harm injuries. High county-level probation rates may exert collateral damage on the mental health of those living in areas with much of the population under state control. These findings emphasize that the criminal legal system is not separate from communities and that future public health research and advocacy must consider these collateral consequences of probation on communities

Inequities in life course criminal legal system sanctions: measuring cumulative involvement

Purpose: The impact of incarceration on health is well known. Yet, most studies measure incarceration alone and miss additional exposure to the criminal legal system over time. We evaluated adult criminal legal sanctions – inclusive of arrests, charges, probation, incarceration – from ages 18–35 and inequities by juvenile sanctions and race. Methods: Using the National Longitudinal Survey on Youth 1997, a nationally representative data set of adolescents followed into their mid-thirties (1997–2017), we calculated the mean cumulative count, or the average number of criminal legal events per person per study visit, stratified by juvenile sanctions and race. Results: Of 7024 participants, 1679 experienced 3,075 encounters. There were seven arrests, 30 charges, nine probation encounters, and 13 incarceration events /100 participants by age 35. Juvenile sanctions were most common for Black individuals. Among those experiencing juvenile sanctions, Black and White individuals had similar numbers of encounters, but Black individuals had more arrests and incarceration stays. For those without juvenile encounters, Black individuals had more encounters than White individuals. Conclusions: Research on health effects of criminal legal sanctions must consider encounters beyond incarceration and focus on life course trajectories and racial inequities

Sex Differences in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors among Hispanic/Latino Youth

To determine the prevalence of obesity and cardiometabolic risk in US Hispanic/Latino youth and examine whether there are disparities by sex in cardiometabolic risk factors

Youth and Caregiver Physical Activity and Sedentary Time: HCHS/SOL Youth

We examined associations between youth and caregiver moderate/vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary (SED) time, using accelerometery, in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latino Youth (HCHS/SOL) Youth