Lecture 18: Criminal Justice System & Homelessness

Question 1

links between mental health & criminal justice system

Answer 1

1. Criminalization thesis: Deinstitutionalization -> criminalization of mental illness
2. Criminality thesis: people with mental illness are dangerous and more likely to commit crime

Question 2

criminalization thesis

Answer 2

• Societal fear of deviant behaviour led society to resort to the criminal justice system to arrest those with mental illness
• Holds society responsible for sending those with mental illness into the criminal justice system instead of getting them treatment
• Suggests that the criminal justice system treats those who have a mental illness differently than those without a mental illness, such that the system is more likely to incarcerate those who are mentally ill than those who are not
• After release from police custody, those with mental illness are likely to return to under-resourced neighbourhoods, where they may come into contact with police

Question 3

criminality thesis

Answer 3

• Often reinforced in pop culture with the “mad man” image
• Holds the individual rather than society responsible for their contact with the criminal justice system

Question 4

ways police respond to those who are mentally ill

Answer 4

• Informal interventions (ex. Mediate disputes, offer solutions, cooling out situation)
• Formal intervention (ex. Arrest, hospitalization)

Question 5

formal police interventions for mental illness

Answer 5

• Less common and used in situations that are likely to escalate or cause the police to come back
• Police may choose to arrest even when treatment the better option when it is highly visible, likely to require later police intervention, a suspect is viewed as non-compliant, the officers perceive that they have limited options beyond involuntary hospitalization, or officers don’t recognize the signs of mental illness
• Police may be more likely to opt for hospitalization when they view that the person does not pose a threat or is known to them as having a mental illness
• If police are given the resources to understand mental illness and have a place to send people, they’ll hospitalize
• If they aren’t, they’ll opt for arrest

Question 6

evidence for the criminalization thesis: arrests

Answer 6

• People with mental illness have higher arrest rates than the general population
• This could be a revolving door (the same people getting arrested over and over again)

Question 7

evidence for the criminalization thesis: incarceration

Answer 7

• Incarcerated populations have higher rates of mental illness than in the general population, when using broad and narrow definitions of “illness”
• We don’t know if there has been a rise in the criminalization of the mentally ill since deinstitutionalization because we don’t have the data from before deinstitutionalization

Question 8

evidence for the criminalization thesis: forensic units

Answer 8

• There has been an increase in the proportion of inmates who receive a mental illness diagnosis or treatment while incarcerated
• Again, we don’t know if this supports the criminalization hypothesis because we don’t have the data from before deinstitutionalization

Question 9

evidence for the criminality thesis: arrests

Answer 9

most arrests are for misdemeanors, less serious offences, and only a minority of offences are violent

Question 10

evidence for the criminality thesis: incarceration

Answer 10

severe mental illness is often comorbid with substance abuse or personality disorder among incarcerated populations

Question 11

evidence for the criminality thesis: forensic units

Answer 11

• 10-40% of people admitted to mental hospitals were violent in the community prior to hospitalization
• Allegations of danger to access treatment?

Question 12

comorbidities & violence

Answer 12

• Most people with mental illness are not violent and only a small minority of people with severe mental illness commit any violent act in a year’s time, but their low rate is higher than what is found among those with no mental illness
• Substance abuse/ dependence and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are often the main factors that lead to a crime
• Mental illness is usually a secondary factor
• Substance abuse statistically explains most of the variance in differences in violence between mentally ill and non-mentally ill populations
• One study found that people with severe mental illness with no substance abuse were no more likely to be violent than those without a mental illness

Question 13

homelessness reading

Answer 13

• The schools Tim was in were unequipped to support his mental illness
• They blamed his parents for being overprotective
• By middle school, he was constantly being suspended, such that by the time he got to age 18, he didn’t have a diploma
• Tim had a revolving door, where he went from jail to the hospital to the streets
• When he was incarcerated, he felt better because his life was more structured
• Tim’s race may have also contributed to the 10 year gap between his symptoms emerging and his diagnosis
• The Canadian healthcare system may be slightly better than the US system, but not by much