Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Background and Purpose: The 1970s marked a sea change in American public policy in many areas. These changes, including deinstitutionalization, the strengthening of drug crime laws, and the emergence of sentencing reform, have profoundly affected people with mental illness. Since the 1970s, a large number of people with mental illness have entered the criminal justice system. The criminalization hypothesis is one idea offered to explain this phenomenon. This hypothesis, however, oversimplifies the complexity of historical developments by only focusing on the role of deinstitutionalization and illness. This paper examines a wider range of policy trends that may explain the involvement of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.

Methods: Using archival data on multiple policy trends, an explanatory model is developed based on social work, public health and criminal justice perspectives. This model is used to pose a ‘fundamental causes' explanation of the involvement of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.

Results: Evidence suggests that substance abuse and related legislation, demography, and economic shifts have more explanatory power than is typically accounted for by researchers and policy makers.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings of this study have implications for the creation and implementation of policy level interventions to reduce criminal justice involvement of people with mental illness. Specifically, greater accessibility to treatment for co-occurring disorders at different points in the mental health system may be a more direct intervention that may reduce criminal justice involvement of this population and may also support the impact of diversion and re-entry programs.