Does early onset of criminal behavior differentiate for whom serious mental illness has a direct or indirect effect on recidivism?

Abstract

The involvement of people with serious mental illness (SMI) with the justice system may be a direct result of their disruptive/unsafe expression of psychiatric symptoms being responded to by law enforcement. SMI may also contribute to justice involvement, through exposure to environmental and social learning processes that place people with SMI at risk for criminal behavior. This study addresses the question: For whom does SMI directly or indirectly relate to criminal behavior? Mediation and conditional effects testing were used to examine the potential of early onset of criminal behavior to distinguish those groups for whom SMI displays a direct effect or an indirect effect on criminal recidivism. This study utilized a disproportionate random sample of 379 inmates released from New Jersey Department of Corrections; 190 of whom had SMI and 189 of whom did not have SMI. Data were collected from clinical and administrative records. Results indicate that criminal risk mediated the relationship between SMI and recidivism. This indirect effect was conditioned by whether the individual had a juvenile conviction. Specifically, for early start offenders, criminal risk was positively related to recidivism while this relationship was not observed for late start offenders. Juvenile criminal onset did not condition the direct effects of SMI on recidivism. A juvenile history of criminal involvement may signal the presence of heightened criminogenic need among adults with SMI. This simple indicator could function to differentiate for clinicians those adults who are good candidates for exploring further, and targeting for amelioration, criminogenic needs to reduce further criminal involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record

Gambling and Impulsivity Traits: A Recipe for Criminal Behavior?

“…Although some demographic risk factors have been identified for criminal recidivism (in particular gender, age, and race), in recent years there has been much debate about whether sociodemographic factors in themselves can fully account for the complexity behind reoccurring criminal behaviors ( 76 , 77 ). In our sample, GD patients who had committed multiple offenses endorsed greater GD severity levels and greater amounts of gambling-related debts.…”

Age onset of offending and serious mental illness among forensic psychiatric patients: A latent profile analysis

“…Their greater likelihood of adverse childhood experiences has also been confirmed (Jones et al, ; Laajasalo & Hakkanen, ; Mathieu & Côté, ; Sánchez‐SanSegundo et al, 2014; Tengström et al, ; Van Dongen et al, , ). In a sample of mentally disordered offenders, a relationship between criminogenic needs and recidivism was only observed among those with a history of juvenile offending (Matejkowski et al, ).…”

Racial Variation in Mental Health Court Experiences and the Associations of These Experiences With Recidivism

“…Variables reflecting prior criminal behavior included the age of first arrest and most serious crime. The age of the first arrest was a continuous variable and measured by asking, “How old were you when you were first arrested?” Then, reflective of recent research on early-start/late-start offending among people with mental illness (see Matejkowski et al, 2017), age of first arrest was recoded to indicate presence of an arrest prior to age 18. In addition, utilizing data from the baseline survey, we identified the participant’s most serious crime with a single-item question: “Tell me the most serious offenses you have ever been arrested for.” Crime severity was originally coded on a 10-point severity scale (i.e., 1 = Murder/Manslaughter, 2 = Rape/Sodomy, 3 = Assault, 4 = Robbery, 5 = Kidnapping/Arson, 6 = Other crimes against a person, 7 = Sex crimes, 8 = Property crimes, 9 = Drug crimes, and 10 = Minor crimes) using the objective crime severity categories developed by the U.S. Department of Justice (Wolfgang et al, 1985).…”