The effect of the labor market on mental hospital and prison use: An international comparison

Abstract

Mental hospital and prison occupancy vary widely between industrial nations. A multiple regression procedure was used to study the relationship of these variables to a number of social indicators in a sample of Western industrial nations, expanded, where possible, to include Eastern Bloc countries. The provision of mental hospital beds in 1965 was found to be positively associated with national unemployment and per capita G.N.P. in Western and Eastern Bloc nations. By 1974 these associations had disappeared and were replaced by correlations with other social indicators. A correlation between prison incarceration rates and unemployment was found to exist in the Western nations in 1974. It is argued that whereas the labor market no longer determines the extent of national psychiatric hospital use, the unemployment rate does influence prison incarceration rates. The ratio of mental hospital to prison use was inversely correlated with the national infant mortality rate in 1974, reflecting, it is suggested, an association with the national commitment to health and welfare provisions.