Visibility, Vulnerability, and Violence

Existing literature has yet to conceptualize and consolidate research on psychological essentialism and its relation to the criminal legal system, particularly in terms of explaining how individuals with justice involvement have been and could be differentially impacted across contexts. This article explores essentialism in the criminal legal system, including its potential consequences for inequity. We review research on essentialism as a psychological construct, its common applications to different social categorizations, and its trickle-down effects within the criminal legal system. Empirical work suggests that biases stemming from essentialism have the potential to severely affect individuals within the criminal legal system. Beyond assigning immutable properties across social groups, essentialism can give rise to biased attributions of responsibility and blame and affect decisions and behavior within three core domains of the criminal legal system: jury decision making, sentencing decisions, and public support for punitive policies. We propose future policy recommendations to mitigate the adverse effects of essentialism in the criminal legal system, focusing especially on how using and adopting person-first language (focusing on people before characteristics) across society and policy can help to combat bias across criminal legal domains. Future research is needed on how to best address the adverse effects of essentialism and its biasing effects in the criminal legal system, as well as to examine the effects of essentialism in different legal contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

BackgroundA growing body of research has called attention to limitations to reproductive autonomy in both women who are socially disadvantaged and in those who have had contact with the criminal legal (CL) system. However, it is unclear whether CL system contact influences contraceptive use patterns and how these processes unfold. We utilize a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether history of arrest is associated with receipt of contraceptive counseling, use of long-term contraception, sterilization, and subsequent desire for reversal of sterilization. We further consider how agents in and around the CL system may influence women’s reproductive decisions and outcomes (856 survey respondents; 10 interviewees).ResultsWe observe that women who have been arrested more commonly report receipt of contraceptive counseling and sterilization. They are also significantly more likely to want their sterilization reversed. Our in-depth interviews suggest that women with CL contact experience considerable shame, and in some cases, coercion to limit fertility from various agents in and outside the criminal legal system including medical providers, Parole/Probation Officers (POs), guards, and family members.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the need for ongoing attention to how exposure to this system may promote uneven use of certain forms of contraception and dissatisfaction, i.e., desire for reversal of sterilization, among these women. Findings further suggest that de-emphasizing the CL system as a means through which to address reproductive needs should be considered.

How menopause symptoms shape experiences of the criminal legal system: A qualitative study across the United States.

Patterns and contexts of polysubstance use among young and older adults who are involved in the criminal legal system and use opioids: A mixed methods study

A growing body of research has now identified the criminal legal system as a major social determinant of population health and health disparities in the United States. The current review provides a description of the U.S. criminal legal landscape, briefly summarizes recent research findings, and identifies new and needed directions for research. Building on prior research first identifying direct contact with the prison system as a social determinant of health, recent research provides evidence of elevated risks for physical and mental morbidity and mortality among those with direct or indirect contact with the criminal legal system. This research has been expanded to include community supervision and contact with police as important drivers of health.While this evidence base has grown, our understanding of the role of the criminal legal system in population health has remained limited for several reasons: (1) prison and jail incarceration remain the primary forms of contact examined despite the existence of other relevant forms of carceral contact and control; (2) the longitudinal health consequences of contact with the criminal legal system have largely gone undocumented; (3) the majority of the research is descriptive and does not employ causal modeling approaches; and (4) relatedly, the mechanisms that link criminal legal system contact with health are not adequately measured. The criminal legal system has emerged as a significant social determinant of health. While advances have been made in documenting the direct and indirect consequences of contact for population health and health disparities, more work is needed to better ascertain how and why this contact matters.

Research has indicated that contacts with the criminal legal system may have detrimental consequences for health and well-being. There is, however, a lack of research exploring how different types of interactions with the criminal legal system may impact mental health. Our study aims to address the gap in the literature by exploring progressively more severe forms of criminal legal contact on a variety of mental health symptoms using the Pathways to Desistance Study (PDS), a longitudinal sample of youth (2000–2010) who have a high level of contact with the criminal legal system (N = 1,322). Using fixed-effects modeling, we examine how specific types of contact with the criminal legal system (e.g., arrests, court appearances, institutionalization) are associated with mental health outcomes including symptoms of anxiety, depression, hostility, and psychoticism. We found that arrests and institutionalization have significant cross-sectional associations with multiple mental health symptoms, while appearing in court was associated with more long-term increases in reported mental health symptoms. We also observed that substance use, criminal involvement, and use of mental health medication were consistently associated with mental health outcomes across 10 waves of data. Thus, our paper evidences that even less severe contacts with the criminal legal system appear to be stressors that can have both short-term and long-term effects on mental health symptoms in youths and young adults.

Each year, millions of families with children in the United States (US) come into contact with the criminal legal system (CLS), the deleterious consequences of which are well documented. Families exposed to the CLS often face many stressors and may benefit from supports and services designed to enhance parent–child relationships and connect them to health-promoting resources and services. Early childhood family home visiting (FHV) is a two-generation strategy to support pregnant women and families with infants and young children, many of whom encounter the CLS. Yet, little is known about the CLS experiences of families receiving FHV. This scoping review summarizes the published research on CLS experiences among FHV-enrolled families in the US. Seven online databases were used to identify research published between 1967 and 2022. Following PRISMA guidelines, articles were required to focus on FHV and CLS involvement. Twenty-eight articles met inclusion criteria; five were systematic reviews or meta-analyses, 22 were primary sources with quantitative measures of CLS, and one was a qualitative study. Among the primary quantitative sources, more than half (55%) included CLS measures to describe the sample and the others included CLS variables as outcomes. CLS involvement was a common experience among families receiving FHV services. This scoping review provides an important first step in describing the existing research on FHV participants’ CLS involvement and can inform future efforts to serve this group of families.

The current configuration and function of U.S. societal structures drives the overrepresentation of people with serious mental illness in the criminal legal system. Although the causes are multifactorial, the mental health system poorly serves those at highest risk of criminal legal system involvement. The growth of the mental health evidence base regarding the social determinants of mental health has ushered in greater understanding of their central role in the promotion and maintenance of mental illness and health. These academic strides, however, have failed to translate into widespread care and payment policy changes. Additionally, as is the case in the criminal legal system, structural racism shapes people's experiences in the mental health care system, contributing to inequitable mental health outcomes for persons with severe mental illness from racial and ethnic minority groups. This is a critical consideration for the population involved in the criminal legal system: Black and Brown people make up more than half of those incarcerated in the United States (despite comprising just 32% of the total population). In the absence of an intersectional, antiracist, structurally informed approach, any attempt by the mental health care system to stem the overrepresentation of people with serious mental illness in the criminal legal system will fail. This article provides an overview of the current mental health care system's shortcomings in serving this population. It proposes concrete steps to address these shortcomings, with a special focus on race and social determinants of health.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health concern and has implications for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system during arrest, conviction, incarceration, and community supervision. This meta-analysis estimated the lifetime prevalence of TBI among people supervised by the criminal legal system across settings. Building on previous research, we hypothesized that prevalence estimates would be impacted by methodological, clinical, and demographic factors. Eligible studies included those with adult participants supervised by the criminal legal system (i.e., prison, jail, probation, parole, inpatient/forensic hospital) and that provided sample TBI prevalence and method of ascertaining TBI history. We employed subgroup analyses and metaregression to investigate the effects of setting, TBI definition and method of detection, lifetime history of mental illness and substance use disorders, and gender. The sample ultimately included 64 studies totaling 52,540 participants. Using a random-effects model and logit transformation, we found that the overall estimate of TBI prevalence was 45.8% (95% confidence interval, CI [37.8, 54.1], 95% prediction interval, PI [5.5, 92.5]) across all studies and 32.0% (95% CI [25.0, 39.8], 95% PI [11.2, 63.6]) for moderate-to-severe TBI. Significant effects were found for TBI definition and method of detection on the pooled estimate. The prevalence of TBI among people impacted by the criminal legal system may be larger than in the general population. However, despite recent and ongoing progress in this area of study, the reliability of prevalence estimates remains limited by methodological factors related to TBI definitions and detection methods. Implications for TBI research and clinical service provision are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

While the scale and scope of the criminal legal system is often discussed with attention to racial disproportionalities, the fact that disabled people are overrepresented at all points in the system is less discussed by social workers. Disabled people come into contact with the criminal legal system as suspects, defendants, incarcerated persons, victims, and witnesses. Compared to people without disabilities, disabled people are more likely to experience victimization, be arrested, be charged with a crime, and serve longer prison sentences once convicted. These trends are even more profound for disabled people with intersecting marginalized identities, such as people of color, women, poor people, and those who identify as LGBTQ. This article provides an overview of the connections between disability, law enforcement, and practices of imprisonment in the United States. We provide a historical overview of the involvement of disabled people in the criminal legal system, review the prevalence of disability in the criminal legal system, and then discuss the unique ways in which disabled people are impacted by the criminal legal system. We conclude by providing recommendations for social work practice and advocacy based in disability justice.

Child abuse is a pervasive form of gender‐based violence that inflicts lasting trauma on its victims, their families, and their communities. Participation in the criminal legal system can exacerbate this trauma, particularly for children and youth experiencing intersecting and systemic inequalities. Trauma‐informed practices have emerged as a framework for various systems to recognize the effects of trauma and adapt interactions to promote healing and reduce re‐traumatization. This raises an overarching question of what the elements of a trauma‐informed approach to child abuse in the criminal legal system are. This article synthesizes the state of the literature and current practices as they relate to trauma‐informed approaches for children and youth victimized by child abuse who are engaged with the criminal legal system, focusing on the Canadian legal and policy context. We summarize the impact of legal system involvement for these children and youth and explore how trauma‐informed approaches are conceptualized within the criminal legal system, including restorative and transformative justice approaches. We also identify core elements of trauma‐informed approaches to the legal process in child abuse cases and the associated policy and practice implications for the criminal legal system. Lastly, we identify gaps in the literature and outline future directions and recommendations for research to expand knowledge and reduce system‐induced trauma for these vulnerable young people.

An updated systematic review of the literature on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and the criminal legal system.

Labels for individuals involved in the criminal legal system (e.g., prisoner, offender, inmate) are dehumanizing and perpetuate stigma, contributing to re-offense as well as mental and behavioral health issues. There is a growing movement towards using person-centered language for individuals involved in the criminal legal system, however, it is unclear if such language has been adopted in academic literature. We examined empirical articles from four criminology journals to determine whether the use of labels has changed over a recent 10-year period and explore differences in label use across articles by identifying characteristics of articles that discuss individuals involved in the criminal legal system. Results yielded that the predicted probability of label use decreased from 99% in 2013 to 88% in 2022. While this is a significant decrease over time, more efforts are warranted to further decrease this high rate and examine how language choice in academic publications and other forms of media impact policy and public opinion. Authors affiliated with Criminology or Sociology/Anthropology departments had the highest rates of containing a label anywhere in the article. The findings demonstrate the research community’s trend towards decreasing the use of stigmatizing language, however, more research and conversation about humanizing language in academic research is vital in the pursuit of reducing stigma and discrimination for individuals involved in the criminal legal system.

There is limited research on the connection between dementia and the criminal legal system, though we know that this system encounters people with dementia regularly. Prior research has established that individuals affected by frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may have symptoms, including behavioral symptoms, which violate social norms and may be considered “criminal.” As a result, persons living with FTD may be more vulnerable and at risk for interactions with the criminal legal system, including with police. This session will present findings from a study investigating the experiences of people with FTD who have had contact with the criminal legal system through arrest, detention, arraignment, or incarceration through the perspective of their care partners. Preliminary analysis reveals that this group has diverse experiences and perspectives depending upon their individual circumstances. Despite this heterogeneity, they face common barriers, mostly due to challenges in receiving a correct diagnosis and the criminal legal system’s lack of awareness and education about FTD. Care partners rely on shared strengths such as education, social capital, and advocacy skills to navigate these challenges effectively.

When the Psyche is the Crime Scene: The Criminal Legal System's Failure to Meaningfully Respond to Crimes of Sexual Violence