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Does the Timing and Length of Incarceration Matter for Long-Term Economic and Health Outcomes? Analysis of Male Arrestees Drawn From a Nationally Representative Sample
Abstract
Research has consistently documented that incarceration is associated with numerous negative outcomes later in life. Much of this research has focused only on adults who were incarcerated and either excluded juveniles or examined them separately. Moreover, findings from the majority of these studies are often based on simple binary measures of incarceration without examining the length of time each person was incarcerated. The current study sought to address these shortcomings in the literature by examining whether incarceration length as a juvenile and as an adult are associated with adulthood economic disadvantage, health, suicidal ideation, and depression. To do so, males from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) who had been arrested were examined. The analysis revealed that juvenile incarceration length was associated with health and suicidal ideation whereas adult incarceration length was associated with economic disadvantage, suicidal ideation, and depression. The results of this study underscore that the timing and length of incarceration matters for life outcomes.
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Purpose
People released from incarceration are at increased risk of suicide compared to the general population. We aimed to synthesise evidence on the incidence of and sex differences in suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-harm after release from incarceration.
Methods
We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science and PubMed between 1 January 1970 and 14 October 2021 for suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-harm after release from incarceration (PROSPERO registration: CRD42020208885). We calculated pooled crude mortality rates (CMRs) and standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for suicide, overall and by sex, using random-effects models. We calculated a pooled incidence rate ratio (IRR) comparing rates of suicide by sex.
Results
Twenty-nine studies were included. The pooled suicide CMR per 100,000 person years was 114.5 (95%CI 97.0, 132.0, I² = 99.2%) for non-sex stratified samples, 139.5 (95% CI 91.3, 187.8, I² = 88.6%) for women, and 121.8 (95% CI 82.4, 161.2, I² = 99.1%) for men. The suicide SMR was 7.4 (95% CI 5.4, 9.4, I² = 98.3%) for non-sex stratified samples, 14.9 for women (95% CI 6.7, 23.1, I² = 88.3%), and 4.6 for men (95% CI 1.3, 7.8, I² = 98.8%). The pooled suicide IRR comparing women to men was 1.1 (95% CI 0.9, 1.4, I² = 82.2%). No studies reporting self-harm or suicidal ideation after incarceration reported sex differences.
Conclusion
People released from incarceration are greater than seven times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. The rate of suicide is higher after release than during incarceration, with the elevation in suicide risk (compared with the general population) three times higher for women than for men. Greater effort to prevent suicide after incarceration, particularly among women, is urgently needed.
Research Summary:
In The Eternal Criminal Record, James Jacobs detailed how it has become increasingly difficult for ex-offenders to escape the mark of their criminal record. One way to “wipe the slate clean” is through the official expungement of criminal records. We assess public views toward this policy using a national sample of American adults (N = 1,000). Public support for expungement is high for persons convicted of property and substance-related offenses, who stay crime free for 7 to 10 years, and who “signal” their reform through stable employment and completion of a rehabilitation program. Members of the public are also concerned about unfettered public access to criminal records and want to ensure that any available criminal record information is accurate. The strongest predictor of support for expungement is a belief in redeemability.
Policy Implications:
There is a growing movement in the United States that seeks to curtail the effects of criminal records through their expungement. In recent years, most states have enacted bills creating, expanding, or streamlining criminal record relief. Public opinion is important in this context, because it can motivate or constrain reform efforts. Our findings show that, when the risk to public safety appears low, the American public favors providing second chances by using expungement to wipe clean the record of a criminal offense committed years previously. Further, knowledge about the public’s belief in redeemability may be key to understanding and promoting reform efforts that seek to include rather than exclude offenders back into society.
People involved with the criminal justice system in the United States are disproportionately low-income and indebted. The experience of incarceration intensifies financial hardship, including through worsening debt. Little is known about how people who are incarcerated and their families are impacted by debt and how it affects their reentry experience. We conducted a scoping review to identify what is known about the debt burden on those who have been incarcerated and their families and how this impacts their lives. We searched 14 data bases from 1990 to 2019 for all original research addressing financial debt held by those incarcerated in the United States, and screened articles for relevance and extracted data from pertinent studies. These 31 studies selected for inclusion showed that this population is heavily burdened by debt that was accumulated in three general categories: debt directly from criminal justice involvement such as LFOs, preexisting debt that compounded during incarceration, and debts accrued during reentry for everyday survival. Debt was generally shown to have a negative effect on financial well-being, reentry, family structure, and mental health. Debts from LFOs and child support is very common among the justice-involved population and are largely unpayable. Other forms of debt likely to burden this population remain largely understudied. Extensive reform is necessary to lessen the burden of debt on the criminal justice population in order to improve reentry outcomes and quality of life.
The “pains of imprisonment” is one of the most prominent concepts in the social study of incarceration. First introduced by Gresham Sykes in 1958, it has subsequently been taken up by generations of authors and applied to an increasingly diverse range of contexts, populations, and activities. This article details how the “pains of imprisonment” concept has evolved and expanded. It is based on an analysis of 50 academic works (books, articles, and chapters) that used some variation of the “pains of…” formulation. We identified four main trajectories in the literature that have contributed to this expansion, which we document in the first section through the use of illustrative examples. This is followed by a more critical series of reflections that seek to appreciate some of the organizational and political factors that might account for the appeal of this concept. Finally, we conclude by questioning whether the “pains” framing might paradoxically be a victim of its own success, with its analytical and political purchase potentially blunted through overuse and overextension.
Background: Incarcerated people often experience victimisation and trauma. Whilst the occurrence of Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs) within incarceration is acknowledged, little empirical research has examined PTEs that occur within incarceration and their association with PTSD. Aims: The current systematic review and meta-analysis sought to explore the association between PTEs during incarceration and PTSD, summarise key characteristics of the existing literature and understand the extent to which specific PTEs and participant characteristics are associated with PTSD. Results: Six studies met the review inclusion criteria. Overall, studies reported high rates of PTEs during incarceration and found significant positive associations between PTEs, including victimisation and abuse, solitary confinement and coercion experienced within incarceration and PTSD outcomes (r = 0.32). Surprisingly, time spent incarcerated and pre-incarceration mental health concerns were not significantly associated with PTSD. Conclusions: The results of this review highlight the detrimental psychological effects of PTEs experienced within incarceration. The associations highlighted underline the need for trauma-informed care and eradication of PTEs within the prison environment. However, there remains a need for methodologically robust studies, in order to increase understanding of the PTSD-related consequences that may arise from incarceration and to optimise the post-release adjustment of prisoners.
Research on inequality in punishment has a long and storied history, yet the overwhelming focus has been on episodic disparity in isolated stages of criminal case processing (e.g., arrest, prosecution, or sentencing). Although theories of cumulative disadvantage exist in criminology, they are seldom adapted to account for treatment in the criminal justice system. We provide an overview of the concept of cumulative disadvantage in the life course and review evidence on the development of cumulative disadvantages across stages of the criminal justice system. In doing so, we appraise the empirical research on policing, prosecution, and the courts and consider how these largely separate bodies of scholarship are inherently connected. We conclude with a call for future research that focuses more explicitly on the ways that life-course disadvantages shape contact with the criminal justice system and how these processes work to perpetuate patterns of disadvantage within the system and in subsequent life outcomes.
Before and after incarceration, the typical prisoner differs from the typical American in several ways, including education, employment prospects, and earnings. Current research on the effect of incarceration on earnings predominantly uses techniques that characterize incarceration’s effect on mean wages and is limited to observing wages immediately after release. I employ data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a variety of quantile regressions to estimate differential incarceration penalties across the wage and income distribution. I also estimate the long-term effects of incarceration on mean wages, income, and labor supply. Results suggest that the incarceration wage penalty is relatively homogenous across wages, while more severe penalties are estimated at lower income levels, suggestive of incarceration’s deleterious effect on labor supply. Mean earnings and labor supply penalties are most severe in the period after release but gradually diminish over time for releasees that do not experience additional incarceration spells.
Objective:
We sought to quantify the association between child incarceration in the U.S. and subsequent adult health outcomes.
Methods:
We analyzed National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data from 1,727 adult (Wave IV) participants first incarcerated at age <25. Using Chi-squared tests and multivariate logistic regression models, we compare adult health outcomes (mobility limitations, depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts) among those first incarcerated at age ≤14, 15-17, and 18-20, with 21-24 as the reference group.
Results:
Of the 1,727 participants, 105 (6.7%) were first incarcerated at age ≤14 ("child incarceration category"), 315 (19.3%) at age 15-17, 696 (38.5%) at age 18-20, and 611 (35.6%) at age 21-24. Those incarcerated as children (age ≤14) were disproportionately black or Hispanic compared to those incarcerated at age 15-24. Compared with first incarceration at age 21-24, child incarceration independently predicted adult mobility limitations (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=3.74; p=0.001), adult depression (OR=1.98; p=0.034), and adult suicidal thoughts (OR= 4.47; p=0.005).
Conclusions:
Child incarceration displays even wider sociodemographic disparities than incarceration generally and is associated with even worse adult physical and mental health outcomes.
Purpose
Although incarceration may have life-long negative health effects, little is known about associations between child incarceration and subsequent adult health outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
We analyzed data from 14,689 adult participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to compare adult health outcomes among those: (1) first incarcerated between 7 – 13 years of age (child incarceration); (2) first incarcerated at ≥ 14 years of age; (3) and never incarcerated.
Findings
Compared to the other two groups, those with a history of child incarceration were disproportionately Black or Hispanic, male, and from lower socioeconomic strata. Additionally, individuals incarcerated as children had worse adult health outcomes, including general health, functional limitations (climbing stairs), depressive symptoms, and suicidality, then those first incarcerated at older ages or never incarcerated.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the limitations of our secondary database analysis, these findings suggest that incarcerated children are an especially medically vulnerable population.
Practical implications
Programs and policies that address these medically vulnerable children’s health needs through comprehensive health and social services in place of, during, and/or after incarceration are needed.
Originality/value
No prior studies have examined the longitudinal relationship between child incarceration and adult health outcomes.
The unprecedented growth of the penal system in the United States has motivated an expansive volume of research on the collateral consequences of punishment. In this review, we take stock of what is known about these collateral consequences, particularly in the domains of health, employment, housing, debt, civic involvement, families, and communities. Yet the full reckoning of the formal and informal consequences of mass incarceration and the tough-on-crime era is hindered by a set of thorny challenges that are both methodological and theoretical in nature. We examine these enduring challenges, which include (a) the importance of minimizing selection bias, (b) consideration of treatment heterogeneity, and (c) identification of causal mechanisms underlying collateral consequences. We conclude the review with a focused discussion on promising directions for future research, including insights into data infrastructure, opportunities for policy tests, and suggestions for expanding the field of inquiry. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology Volume 1 is January 13, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
"Get tough" control policies in the United States are often portrayed as the reflection of the public's will: Americans are punitive and want offenders locked up. Research from the past decade both reinforces and challenges this assessment. The public clearly accepts, if not prefers, a range of punitive policies (e. g., capital punishment, three-strikes-and-you're-out laws, imprisonment). But support for get-tough policies is "mushy." Thus citizens may be willing to substitute a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for the death penalty. Especially when nonviolent offenders are involved, there is substantial support for intermediate sanctions and for restorative justice. Despite three decades of criticism, rehabilitation-particularly for the young-remains an integral part of Americans' correctional philosophy. There is also widespread support for early intervention programs. In the end, the public shows a tendency to be punitive and progressive, wishing the correctional system to achieve the diverse missions of doing justice, protecting public safety, and reforming the wayward.
Suicide is prevalent among youth, especially those involved in the juvenile justice system. Although many studies have examined suicidal ideation and behavior in delinquent youth, prevalence rates vary widely. This article reviews studies of suicidal ideation and behavior in youth in the juvenile justice system, focusing on the point of contact: incarceration status and stage of judicial processing. Suicidal ideation and behavior are prevalent and increase with greater involvement in the juvenile justice system. Depression, sexual abuse, and trauma were the most commonly identified predictors of suicidal ideation and behavior. Prevalence rates of suicidal ideation and behavior vary by gender and race/ethnicity, indicating the need for gender-specific and culturally relevant interventions.
© The Author(s) 2015.
Trauma exposure and trauma-related symptoms are prevalent among incarcerated men, suggesting a need for behavioral health intervention. A random sample of adult males (N = 592) residing in a single high-security prison were screened for trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Trauma was a universal experience among incarcerated men. Rates of current PTSD symptoms and lifetime PTSD were significantly higher (30 to 60 %) than rates found in the general male populations (3 to 6 %). Lifetime rates of trauma and PTSD were associated with psychiatric disorders. This study suggests the need for a gender-sensitive response to trauma among incarcerated men with modification for comorbid mental disorders and type of trauma exposure. Developing gender-sensitive trauma interventions for incarcerated men and testing them is necessary to improve the behavioral health outcomes of incarcerated men who disproportionately return to urban communities.
While policy makers have long extolled the benefits of incarceration, criminologists have expended considerable effort demonstrating the harmful collateral consequences of incarceration. Sampson (2011) recently challenged researchers to move beyond this dichotomy and to assess the “social ledger” of incarceration, where both the potential benefits and harms associated with incarceration are examined. To shed light on the variation in the collateral consequences of incarceration, we focus on the experiences of a valuable group of individuals directly impacted by imprisonment: those caring for children of incarcerated parents. Drawing from in-depth interviews with a diverse group of caregivers (N = 100), we examine the various consequences (both positive and negative) that occur in their lives as a result of incarceration, as well as the causal processes responsible for the outcomes we observe. Our findings reveal marked variation in the effects of incarceration on caregivers. Such effects are shaped by (1) the prisoner’s prior parental involvement, (2) the interpersonal relationship between caregiver and prisoner, and (3) the caregiver’s family support system. These findings have important implications for future work conducted on the collateral consequences of incarceration for caregivers, children, and families.
The current study adopts the life course framework to examine the effect of incarceration on the likelihood of becoming married and attaining full‐time employment. It is hypothesized that men who have been incarcerated will be less likely to marry and to gain full‐time employment. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to test the hypothesis. Results from the growth‐curve models support the life‐course theoretical model. Across all models estimated, incarceration is negatively associated with marriage and employment. In addition, positive milestones (e.g., education) are associated with improved chances of employment and marriage. The findings reinforce the importance of considering a multitude of life events when estimating life trajectories.
This year, over 630,000 prisoners will be released from state and federal prisons across the country—more than four times as many as were released in 1980. In this article, we examine the scope of the prisoner reentry issue—what is known about the intersection of housing, homelessness, and reentry and about the barriers returning prisoners face in securing safe and affordable housing.Although the housing challenges are formidable, progress is being made on numerous fronts. We seek to frame the dynamics of the reentry housing discussion by highlighting the promising strategies that are emerging. These strategies, taken to scale, could help create a very different national policy on prisoner reentry. Ultimately, effective reentry strategies have the potential not only to reduce re‐arrest and increase public safety, but also to reduce homelessness.
Poor urban communities experience high rates of incarceration and prisoner reentry. This paper examines the residences where former prisoners live after prison, focusing on returns to pre-prison social environments, residential mobility, and the role of intermediate sanctions. Drawing on a unique dataset that follows a cohort of Michigan parolees released in 2003 over time using administrative records, we examine returns to pre-prison environments, both immediately after prison and in the months and years after release. We then investigate the role of intermediate sanctions - punishments for parole violations that are less severe than returning to prison - in residential mobility among parolees. Our results show low rates of return to former neighborhoods and high rates of residential mobility after prison, a significant portion of which is driven by intermediate sanctions resulting from criminal justice system supervision. These results suggest that, through parole supervision, the criminal justice system generates significant residential mobility.
Discusses the paradoxical discrepancy involved in the statistical calculation of the percentage of variation in batting performance that is attributable to skill differentials among major-league baseball players, which is discrepant with intuitions about the influence of skill in batting performance. This discrepancy is discussed in terms of habits of thought about variance explanation. It is argued that percentage variance explanation is a misleading index of the influence of systematic factors in cases where there are processes by which influences cumulate to produce meaningful outcomes. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Florida law allows judges to withhold adjudication of guilt for individuals who have been found guilty of a felony and are being sentenced to probation. Such individuals lose no civil rights and may lawfully assert they had not been convicted of a felony. Labeling theory would predict that the receipt of a felony label could increase the likelihood of recidivism. Reconviction data for 95,919 men and women who were either adjudicated or had adjudication withheld show that those formally labeled are significantly more likely to recidivate in 2 years than those who are not. Labeling effects are stronger for women, whites, and those who reach the age of 30 years without a prior conviction. Second-level indicators of county characteristics (e.g., crime rates or concentrated disadvantage) have no significant effect on the adjudication/recidivism relationship.
A life course perspective on crime indicates that incarceration can disrupt key life transitions. Life course analysis of occupations finds that earnings mobility depends on stable employment in career jobs. These two lines of research thus suggest that incarceration reduces ex-inmates’ access to the steady jobs that usually produce earnings growth among young men. Consistent with this argument, evidence for slow wage growth among ex-inmates is provided by analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Because incarceration is so prevalent—one-quarter of black non-college males in the survey were interviewed between 1979 and 1998 while in prison or jail—the effect of imprisonment on individual wages also increases aggregate race and ethnic wage inequality.
Background:
A long line of research has examined whether being the victim of sexual assault is associated with negative and maladaptive outcomes, but has mainly focused on women and girls.
Aims:
To replicate and extend prior research by examining whether various measures of sexual assault are related to physical ill-health, depression and/or suicidal ideation, regardless of sex or age of victim. Our research questions were (1) is sexual assault related to health problems, depression and suicidal ideation and (2) do these associations differ between men and women?
Method:
We analyse data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a longitudinal study of a US nationally representative sample of nearly 21,000 young people recruited for the first wave of interviews when most of the participants were between ages 12 and 18 years. We used Wave 4 data, collected for participants who were in their 20s and 30s, on experience of both physical sexual assault and non-physical sexual assault and mental state, allowing for some characteristics measured in Wave 1. Allowing for missing data, sample sizes were between 6868 and 10,489 for the women and 6024 and 10,263 for the men.
Results:
Statistically significant associations were revealed between the physical and non-physical measures of sexual assault and the health problems scale, the depression scale and the measure of suicidal ideation. These associations remained statistically significant even after controlling for key covariates measured at Wave 1, including exposure to delinquent peers, poverty and demographic characteristics.
Conclusions:
Sexual assault at some time and of whatever kind, although more commonly reported by women than men, is similarly associated with serious physical and mental health problems during their 20s and 30s. More sequencing detail is required for better prevention of harms.
There has been a great deal of scholarship examining the outcomes associated with being processed through the criminal justice system. Much of this research has focused on legal outcomes, such as recidivism, but research has also centered on extralegal outcomes, including measures of health and economics. The current study added to this body of research by examining whether contact with the criminal justice system (i.e., arrest, conviction, and incarceration) was associated with health problems, suicidal ideation, economic disadvantage, and poverty in adulthood for males. The analyses controlled for preexisting criminogenic measures (e.g., low self-control, delinquent peers, neighborhood disadvantage) and for adolescent delinquent involvement. Data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results revealed that all of the criminal justice system measures were statistically significant predictors of the health and economic outcomes even after accounting for preexisting criminogenic traits and delinquent behavior.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) represents a data treasure for developmental psychologists working in both adolescent and life-span development. Add Health is a nationally representative sample of more than 20,000 adolescents in grades 7–12 in 1994–1995, who were followed for 25 years into early midlife over five interview waves. The innovative multilevel design collected direct measures of the social contexts of adolescent life and tracked developmental outcomes in health, health behaviors, cognition, achievement, and relationships over time. Biological data appropriate to the developmental stages of the cohort and relevant biosocial processes were integrated into the longitudinal waves of data collection. This review describes Add Health's design and data contents and highlights illustrative Add Health articles that examine developmental processes and outcomes in the areas of mental health, health behavior, cognition, and relationships. We conclude with new opportunities for developmental analyses and suggest future areas of research.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 4 is December 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
There has been a great deal of interest in understanding the etiological underpinnings to victimization. This body of research has uncovered a list of risk factors that have been consistently tied to victimization. One of the more consistent results is that criminal offenders are at-risk for being victimized. The current study expanded on this finding by examining whether four measures of being processed through the criminal justice system (i.e., arrest, conviction, probation, and incarceration) were related to multiple measures of victimization in adolescence and adulthood. To do so, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results revealed consistent and statistically significant associations between the criminal justice processing variables and the victimization measures for both males and females even after controlling for self-reported criminal and delinquent involvement. We conclude by contextualizing the results and offering suggestions for future research in this area.
The US prison population stands at 1.43 million persons, with an additional 740,000 persons in local jails. Nearly all will eventually return to society. This review examines the available evidence on how the experience of incarceration is likely to impact the probability that formerly incarcerated individuals will reoffend. Our focus is on two types of studies, those based on the random assignments of cases to judges, called judge instrumental-variable studies, and those based on discontinuities in sentence severity in sentencing grids, called regression discontinuity studies. Both types of studies are designed to account for selection bias in nonexperimental estimates of the impact of incarceration on reoffending. Most such studies find that the experience of postconviction imprisonment has little impact on the probability of recidivism. A smaller number of studies do, however, find significant effects, both positive and negative. The negative, recidivism-reducing effects are mostly in settings in which rehabilitative programming is emphasized and the positive, criminogenic effects are found in settings in which such programming is not emphasized. The findings of studies of pretrial incarceration are more consistent—most find a deleterious effect on postrelease reoffending. We also conclude that additional work is needed to better understand the heterogeneous effects of incarceration as well as the mechanisms through which incarceration effects, when observed, are generated. For policy, our conclusion of the generally deleterious effect of pretrial detention adds to a larger body of evidence pointing to the social value of limiting.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Criminologists often allude to 'peer influence' in explanations of crime and delinquency, but the meaning of that concept rarely receives careful attention. Companions in Crime organizes the extensive literature on peer influence and group delinquency into a coherent form for the first time. Chapters focus on the role of peers over the life course, the group nature of delinquent behavior, and the applicability of peer influence for explaining the major features of delinquent behavior. The most extensive chapter of the book examines possible mechanisms of peer influence and the evidence in favor of each. The principal thesis of Companions in Crime is that deviant behavior is predominantly social behavior, and criminologists must eventually determine the significance of that fact.
This article extends the existing literature about the consequences that having a prison record has on formerly incarcerated men’s labor market outcomes by projecting forward to think about what the diminished labor market prospects may mean for men when they reach retirement age. We find that formerly incarcerated men have little wealth accumulated by their late 40s and 50s, that they have limited access to on-the-job pensions, and that some may not even be able to rely on Social Security when they are old. The article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and focuses most of its attention on the plight of Black men and Latino men, as this is the subset of the population that was particularly affected by the nation’s mass incarceration policies of the late 20th century. The implications of the findings for Black and Brown men’s prospects during old age are discussed, as are the implications for the way that policy scholars think about race, aging, and public policy.
Purpose
Health criminology is an emerging line of inquiry that has focused on the association between crime/criminality and health outcomes. The current study sought to add to this literature by examining the potential connection between gang membership and health problems and brain-based disorders.
Methods
Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed.
Results
The results revealed that gang membership was associated with only two (cancer and high blood pressure) of the potential 12 health problems and brain-based disorders. Additional analyses indicated that gang membership was related to a combined measure of health problems, but not to a combined measure of brain-based disorders or to a cumulative measure of health problems. Supplemental analysis also revealed that gang membership was associated with an increased odds of being shot or stabbed.
Conclusions
Gang membership does not appear to have sweeping negative effects on general health and brain-based disorders through young adulthood. We conclude by discussing the limitations of the study and directions for future research.
The dramatic expansion of the US penal system during the past 4 decades has led to an increase in adverse health conditions that affect an unprecedented number of individuals. This article first provides an overview of the literature on the immediate and lasting associations between incarceration and physical health, highlighting the diverse health conditions linked with incarceration, including health functioning, infectious disease, chronic conditions, and mortality. Next, we discuss potential explanations for the associations between incarceration and these health conditions, focusing on stress, contagion, social integration, and reintegration challenges. We then consider how medical and social science research can be combined to advance our understanding of these health conditions and suggest ways to reduce the negative association between incarceration and health, such as by improving prison conditions and medical care both inside prisons and after release.
The findings from a growing body of research reveal that incarceration is detrimental for both physical and mental health. Incarceration, however, is typically conceptualized and operationalized as a dichotomy; individuals either have, or have not, been incarcerated. Considering that incarceration can range from one day to several years, a dichotomous measure may be overlooking important variations across lengths of exposure. In addition, most inmates are incarcerated more than once. In this study, we help to fill this gap by examining the relationship between incarceration dosage, measured as time served and number of spells, and mental health among a sample of young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997. By using fixed‐effects modeling, we find that the number of spells and the months incarcerated are positively related to mental health symptoms and the likelihood of depression. The association, however, is contingent on whether a respondent is currently or formerly incarcerated. Among current inmates, more time served is expected to improve mental health and the number of spells is unrelated to either outcome.
A growing literature documents deleterious consequences of incarceration for mental health. Although salient, incarceration is only one form of criminal justice contact and, accordingly, focusing on incarceration may mask the extent to which the criminal justice system influences mental health. Using insights from the stress process paradigm, along with nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we examine criminal justice contact—defined as arrest, conviction, and incarceration—and mental health. First, fixed-effects models, which adjust for stable unobserved and time-varying observed characteristics, show that arrest is deleteriously associated with mental health, and arrest accounts for nearly half of the association between incarceration and poor mental health, although certain types of incarceration appear more consequential than others. Second, the associations are similar across race and ethnicity; this, combined with racial/ethnic disparities in contact, indicates that criminal justice interactions exacerbate minority health inequalities. Third, the associations between criminal justice contact, especially arrest and incarceration, and mental health are particularly large among respondents residing in contextually disadvantaged areas during adolescence. Taken together, the results suggest that the consequences of criminal justice contact for mental health have a far greater reach than previously considered.
A considerable literature documents the deleterious economic consequences of incarceration. However, little is known about the consequences of incarceration for household assets-a distinct indicator of economic well-being that may be especially valuable to the survival of low-income families-or about the spillover economic consequences of incarceration for families. In this article, we use longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how incarceration is associated with asset ownership among formerly incarcerated men and their romantic partners. Results, which pay careful attention to the social forces that select individuals into incarceration, show that incarceration is negatively associated with ownership of a bank account, vehicle, and home among men and that these consequences for asset ownership extend to the romantic partners of these men. These associations are concentrated among men who previously held assets. Results also show that post-incarceration changes in romantic relationships are an important pathway by which even short-term incarceration depletes assets.
This paper studies how longer incarceration spells affect offenders’ labor market outcomes by using a reform that increased incarceration lengths by approximately 1 month. I use detailed register data for offenders who predominantly serve incarceration spells of 1-2 months. I analyze the sample for several years prior to and after incarceration and show that the reform led to an exogenous increase in incarceration lengths. I find that the longer incarceration spells result in lower unemployment rates and higher earnings, possibly because marginal increases in short incarceration spells improve conditions and incentives for rehabilitation, while the costs of jail related to these outcomes are unaffected. I show that the estimates are robust to different econometric specifications and further provide evidence that my results are not driven by changes in macroeconomic conditions.
The expansion of the penal system has been one of the most dramatic trends in contemporary American society. A wealth of research has examined the impact of incarceration on a range of later life outcomes and has considered how the penal system has emerged as a mechanism of stratification and inequality in the United States. In this article, we review the literature from a comparatively new vein of this research: the impact of incarceration on health outcomes. We first consider the impact of incarceration on a range of individual outcomes, from chronic health conditions to mortality. We then consider outcomes beyond the individual, including the health of family members and community health outcomes. Next, we discuss mechanisms linking incarceration and health outcomes before closing with a consideration of limitations in the field and directions for future research.
This article examines the long-term impact of incarceration during the teens and 20s on labor market outcomes and its causal pathways via education and job experience. Using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article finds that incarceration in youth correctional institutions significantly reduces wages and the total number of weeks worked per year at age 39 or 40 while incarceration during the 20s only lowers wages. Further, this study finds that incarceration in youth correctional institutions lowers education and job experience at age 39 or 40 while incarceration in the 20s only significantly depresses job experience.
Career Criminals in Society examines the small but dangerous group of repeat offenders who are most damaging to society. The book encourages readers to think critically about the causes of criminal behavior and the potential of the criminal justice system to reduce crime. Author Matt DeLisi draws upon his own practitioner experience, interviewing criminal defendants to argue that career criminals can be combated only with a combination of prevention efforts and retributive criminal justice system policies.
This explanation of crime and deviance over the life course is based on the re-analysis of a classic set of data: Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck's mid-century study of 500 delinquents and 500 non-delinquents from childhood to adulthood. More than five years ago, Robert Sampson and John Laub dusted off 60 cartons of the Gluecks' data that had been stored in the basement of the Harvard Law School and undertook a lengthy process of recoding, computerizing, and reanalyzing it. On the basis of their findings, Sampson and Laub developed a theory of informal social control over the life course which integrates three ideas. First, social bonds to family and school inhibit delinquency in childhood and adolescence. Second, there is continuity in antisocial and deviant behaviour from childhood through adulthood across various dimensions, such as crime, alcohol abuse, divorce and unemployment. And finally, despite these continuities, attachment to the labour force and cohesive marriage sharply mitigate criminal activities. Sampson and Laub thus acknowledge the importance of childhood behaviours and individual differences, but reject the implication that adult social factors have little relevance. They seek to account for both stability and change in crime and deviance throughout the life course. "Crime in the making" challenges several major ideas found in contemporary theory and aims to provide an important new foundation for rethinking criminal justice policy.
One of the greatest needs for persons leaving prison and returning to their communities is immediate employment. Although this has been researched and written about by many in the field of criminology and criminal justice, this study, based on interview data obtained from seventy men and women on parole in Colorado, expands on the recognized need for employment by identifying and analyzing the additional collateral financial obligations that are rarely addressed by researchers and correctional practitioners. In addition to describing barriers to obtaining employment, we explore financial obligations that may significantly prevent ex-offenders from gaining an economic foothold, even when employed, including mandatory parole expenses and other debts incurred prior to and after incarceration. Without the ability to meet these financial obligations, many returning former prisoners came to believe they will never achieve economic success. A lack of financial stability and little hope for a better future may significantly affect the ability of many persons leaving prison to successfully reenter society.
We examine the relationship between incarceration and premature mortality for men and women. Analyses using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) reveal strong gender differences. Using two different analytic procedures the results show that women with a history of incarceration are more likely to die than women without such a history, even after controlling for health status and criminal behavior prior to incarceration, the availability of health insurance, and other socio-demographic factors. In contrast, there is no relationship between incarceration and mortality for men after accounting for these factors. The results point to the importance of examining gender differences in the collateral consequences of incarceration. The results also contribute to a rapidly emerging literature linking incarceration to various health hazards. Although men constitute the bulk of inmates, future research should not neglect the special circumstances of female former inmates and their rapidly growing numbers.
The research findings with respect to the relationship between incarceration and employment are consistent enough that it is tempting to conclude that incarceration causes deterioration in ex-inmates' employment prospects. Yet, causality remains tenuous for several reasons. For one, studies frequently rely on samples of nonincarcerated subjects that are not truly "at risk" of incarceration, which undermines their use as comparison samples and potentially biases estimates of the impact of incarceration on life outcomes. Additionally, even with confidence about causal identification, the field remains ignorant about the precise mechanism by which incarceration erodes employment and earnings. To address these gaps, this study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to estimate the impact of incarceration during late adolescence and early adulthood on short- and long-term employment outcomes. The subjects of interest are all individuals who are convicted of a crime for the first time, some of whom receive a sentence of incarceration following their conviction. Broad measures of legal and illegal employment are used to explore possible avenues by which incarceration affects individual work histories.
With over 2 million individuals currently incarcerated, and over half a million prisoners released each year, the large and growing number of men being processed through the criminal justice system raises important questions about the consequences of this massive institutional intervention. This article focuses on the consequences of incarceration for the employment outcomes of black and white job seekers. The present study adopts an experimental audit approach-in which matched pairs of individuals applied for real entry-level jobs-to formally test the degree to which a criminal record affects subsequent employment opportunities. The findings of this study reveal an important, and much underrecognized, mechanism of stratification. A criminal record presents a major barrier to employment, with important implications for racial disparities.
A body of research has revealed that low self-control is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of antisocial behaviors. As a result, there is great interest in identifying the factors that cause variation in levels of self-control. Much of this work has centered on identifying the effects that social factors, such as parental socialization, have on self-control. More recently, however, there has been research revealing that levels of self-control are scripted by genetic factors as well as environmental factors. The current study examines whether a polymorphism (5HTTLPR) in the serotonin transporter gene and exposure to delinquent peers are associated with levels of self-control. Analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicates that the 5HTTLPR polymorphism interacted with a measure of delinquent peer affiliation to predict variation in self-control during adolescence and adulthood. Implications for theories of crime causation are discussed.
Research Summary
Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because policy makers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and nonpunitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents' willingness to pay for various policy proposals. We employ a methodology known as “contingent valuation” (CV) that permits the comparison of respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) for competing policy alternatives. Specifically, we compare CV‐based estimates for the public's WTP for two distinctively different responses to serious juvenile crime: incarceration and rehabilitation. An additional focus of our analysis is an examination of the public's WTP for an early childhood prevention program. The analysis indicates that the public is at least as willing to pay for rehabilitation as punishment for juvenile offenders and that WTP for early childhood prevention is also substantial. Implications and future research directions are outlined.
Policy Implications
The findings suggest that lawmakers should more actively consider policies grounded in rehabilitation, and, perhaps, be slower to advocate for punitive reforms in response to public concern over high‐profile juvenile crimes. Additionally, our willingness to pay findings offer encouragement to lawmakers who are uncomfortable with the recent trend toward punitive juvenile justice policies and would like to initiate more moderate reforms. Such lawmakers may be reassured that the public response to such initiatives will not be hostile. Just as importantly, reforms that emphasize leniency and rehabilitation can be justified economically as welfare‐enhancing expenditures of public funds. The evidence that the public values rehabilitation more than increased incarceration should be important information to cost‐conscious legislators considering how to allocate public funds. Cost‐conscious legislatures may become disenchanted with punitive juvenile justice policies on economic grounds and pursue policies that place greater emphasis on rehabilitation. They may be reassured, on the basis of our findings, that the public will support this move.
Increasingly, research points to the negative effects of incarcerating youth offenders, particularly in adult facilities. Literature published since 2000 suggests that incarceration fails to meet the developmental and criminogenic needs of youth offenders and is limited in its ability to provide appropriate rehabilitation. Incarceration often results in negative behavioral and mental health consequences, including ongoing engagement in offending behaviors and contact with the justice system. Although incarceration of youth offenders is often viewed as a necessary means of public protection, research indicates that it is not an effective option in terms of either cost or outcome. The severe behavioral problems of juvenile offenders are a result of complex and interactive individual and environmental factors, which elicit and maintain offending behavior. Therefore, the focus of effective treatment must be on addressing such criminogenic needs and the multiple "systems" in which the young person comes from. Recent research demonstrates that in order to achieve the best outcomes for youth offenders and the general public, community-based, empirically supported intervention practices must be adopted as an alternative to incarceration wherever possible.