State violence, protest suppression, and trauma outcomes: a scoping review of cumulative exposure across different political contexts.

BACKGROUND

State violence directed at protest movements represents a recurrent source of trauma exposure, yet research examining its psychological consequences remains fragmented across disciplines, exposure modalities, and political contexts.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review synthesises evidence on protest suppression and state violence to examine how repressive practices function as pathways to trauma-related outcomes across diverse settings.

METHOD: Eligible sources, including peer-reviewed empirical studies, systematic and scoping reviews, and institutional or policy documents published between January 2016 and February 2026, were mapped across six exposure domains: population-level unrest climates, protesters' direct exposure to police violence, repression technologies and injury pathways, soft repression and prolonged threat, mediated and spillover exposure, and exile and transnational repression. The evidence was synthesised narratively, with interpretation taking account of source type, study design, and the directness of mental health measurement.

RESULTS

Across the six exposure domains, findings associate protest suppression with post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and chronic hypervigilance. Evidence indicates that psychological harm extends beyond direct encounters with violence and is shaped by cumulative insecurity, digital mediation, durational threat, and cross-border coercion. Taken together, the literature presents repression as a population-level and multi-sited exposure with wider psychological effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Protest suppression can operate as a cumulative mechanism of trauma production extending beyond a discrete event. Recognising indirect, mediated, and transnational exposure has implications for trauma-informed clinical practice, policy responses, and future interdisciplinary research addressing contemporary forms of political violence.