Justice System Contact Research Articles

Cohort profile: Understanding the influence of early life environments and health and social service system contacts over time and across generations through the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) Linked Data Study

PurposeDespite the volume of accumulating knowledge from prospective Aboriginal cohort studies, longitudinal data describing developmental trajectories in health and well-being is limited. The linkage of child and carer cohorts from...

Linking data across multiple sectors to reduce health inequities among justice-involved young people in Australia

BackgroundA scarcity of evidence on the health and social needs of justice-involved young people contributes to persistent health and social inequities. Linking data from multiple sectors provides an opportunity to improve the health, justice, and social systems that this group interacts with, with a view to reducing these inequities. MethodsWe established two population-level cohorts of justice-involved young people using multi-sectoral data linkage: (1) we linked youth justice records in Queensland from 1993-2014 for 48,670 young people to adult correctional records, death records, and coronial records; (2) we linked all youth justice records in Australia from 2000-2019 for 88,110 young people with national emergency department, hospital, primary care, pharmaceutical, and death records. We calculated mortality rates among young people exposed to the youth justice system and compared them with the age- and sex-matched general population. ResultsJustice-involved young people in Queensland died at a 4.1 times higher rate than their non-justice-involved peers. Approximately one-third (34.6%) of deaths were from suicide. There was a 67% increased rate of death due to non-communicable diseases compared to the general population. ConclusionsThe national cohort will fill evidence gaps on health needs and health care use after justice system contact. These two cohorts provide the first comprehensive look into the health of justice-involved young people in Australia and internationally. They form the foundation for routine monitoring and reporting on health needs and trajectories. Multi-sectoral data linkage is essential for sustainable, timely, and evidence-informed decision-making to improve systems, health, and mortality outcomes.

An innovative approach to developing practice informed evidence in the absence of RCTs for a Family-led peer to peer support program

ObjectiveTo illustrate how whole-population linked data can be used to understand a system perspective of client complexity, and build robust evidence of Family by Family program impact. MethodsFamily by Family program (the program) participant data were linked into the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) Platform. BEBOLD is a whole-of-population linked de-identified administrative data platform for all South Australian children born 1991 onwards (n~500,000), as well as their parents including data spanning health, education, and social services. We descriptively analysed parental child protection history, emergency department presentations, hospitalisations, homelessness and justice system contact in the 24 months prior to and post program commencement. We emulate a trial using the ‘target trial’ causal inference framework to evaluate the program effect on a range of child outcomes using targeted maximum likelihood with a set of over 20 confounders. Results There were 361 families and 841 children in the program included in analysis. Selected results follow: Prior to the program, 35.8% of children were in a family where at least one parent had their own child protection history and 8% had a parent who experienced out-of-home care. Nearly 40% of children had at least one parent with a mental health related emergency department and/or hospitalisation, while 22% of children were in a family with specialist homelessness service contact. Program impact results will be presented at the conference. ConclusionThis research-practice partnership illustrates how bringing together program and linked-administrative data generates new evidence about client complexity and program impact.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Police Contact in Canada.

A growing body of research has demonstrated that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are a risk factor for criminal justice system contact. However, much of this research is limited by (1) being conducted in the United States and (2) a lack of details on specific types of harmful experiences of criminal justice system contact, such as police contact characterized by intrusion or harassment. Using survey data from 940 individuals aged 16 to 30 in Canada from the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors, this study investigates the relationship between ACEs and police contact, focusing on encounters involving intrusion or harassment. Results from logistic and multinomial logistic regression analyses reveal that individuals with high ACE exposure, particularly those with four or more ACEs, are more likely to have police contact, including experiences of intrusion and harassment. The results are significant in understanding the interplay between childhood trauma and later encounters with the criminal justice system, emphasizing the need for trauma-informed approaches in policing and healthcare. The study highlights the importance of early interventions to mitigate the effects of ACEs and prevent adverse outcomes in police interactions.

Examining the characteristics of children who experience contact with the youth justice system in Queensland: implications for the minimum age of criminal responsibility

ABSTRACT In jurisdictions such as Queensland, where the minimum age of criminal responsibility (i.e., 10 years of age) is out of step with international law and Australian human rights obligations, there are significant concerns about the criminalisation of children. These concerns include the potential for ensnaring young people, particularly First Nations children, into the criminal justice system rather than addressing their underlying needs. We use a birth cohort of individuals registered as born in Queensland in 1990 and followed up to age 24 years to examine the characteristics of young people who experienced their first youth justice system contact between ages 10 and 16 years. First Nations youth were significantly overrepresented among those with the earliest ages of contact (i.e., 10–13 years). Early youth justice contact was largely for minor and less serious forms of offending (i.e., property-related), but those with the earliest ages of onset typically went on to experience more persistent and serious offending outcomes up to age 24 years. Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility alongside the implementation of culturally relevant early intervention, diversion and support services is likely to significantly reduce the overrepresentation of First Nations people in the criminal justice system.

Locked out of banking: The limits of financial inclusion for formerly incarcerated individuals

Using data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY), this study investigates the relationship between criminal justice system contact history, particularly incarceration, and being excluded from the financial system. Individual fixed effects estimates show that people who have been incarcerated have a lower likelihood of having a checking or savings account after incarceration. While this association could be due to justice-involved individuals avoiding formal systems like financial services, there is no evidence of a relationship between arrest history and being unbanked. Even adjusted for age and other factors, formerly incarcerated people are more likely to be unbanked in the years after release than before being incarcerated. This study offers further evidence on the challenges facing formerly incarcerated individuals, as well as for banking and financial services regulators seeking to expand financial inclusion efforts in the U.S.

Contact with child protection services and subsequent rates of first police contact as a person of interest, victim or witness in early life

PurposeChild maltreatment is known to be associated with risk of later offending and victimisation in adolescence and adulthood, but only a few studies have examined justice system contact in childhood and none have focused on police contact. This study investigated the time to first contact with police in childhood (aged 13 years and younger) among children with prior child protection services contact. MethodsUsing administrative data for 91,631 children from the New South Wales Child Development Study, Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to investigate the time to first contact with the police (for any reason, and specifically as a ‘person of interest’, ‘victim’ or ‘witness’) associated with prior child protection contact, during the observation period from birth to age 13 years. Multivariate models controlled for sex, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Subgroup analyses were also conducted for boys and girls separately. ResultsAmong the 14,323 children with any police contact by age 13 years, around half (52.3 %) had prior contact with the child protection system. Higher rates of police contact for any reason (HR = 4.45 [95 % CI = 4.08–4.86]), and as a person of interest (HR = 9.57 [95 % CI = 6.85–13.38]), victim (HR = 4.49 [95 % CI = 4.18–5.05]), or witness (HR = 9.56 [95 % CI = 7.19–12.69]) were associated with child protection services contact. Effect sizes were similar for boys and girls. ConclusionsEarly interventions that specifically aim to prevent early contact with the justice system among vulnerable children and their families involved with child protection services are required.

Substance use treatment completion and criminal justice system contact in Chile: A retrospective, linked data cohort study.

Substance use treatment (SUT) has shown to be effective in reducing self-reported offending; however, the association between SUT completion and criminal justice system (CJS) contact has been underexplored, especially in Latin America. This study aimed to estimate the association between SUT completion status and (1) any subsequent CJS contact and (2) CJS contact leading to imprisonment, at 1, 3 and 5years post-discharge, in Chile. Retrospective cohort study using multivariable survival analysis based on linked administrative data from 2010 to 2019. This study took place in Chile, where SUT is available at no cost through Chile's publicly funded health-care, and is provided in outpatient and inpatient modalities in public and private centres. A total of 70 854 individuals received their first SUT from 2010 to 2019. They were mainly males (76.3%), and their main substance used at admission was cocaine paste (39.2%). SUT completion status included completion, late dropout (≥3months) and early dropout (< 3months). Outcomes were (1) any CJS contact and (2) CJS contact leading to imprisonment after baseline treatment. We estimated the association between treatment completion and CJS contact through flexible parametric Royston-Parmar models while adjusting for several covariates. Those who completed SUT (27.2%) were less likely to have any CJS contact at 5years post-SUT compared with those who dropped out late [with a gap of -9.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -8.7, -10.3] and early (-11.2%, 95% CI = -10.1, -12.3). Also, those who completed SUT were less likely to have CJS contact leading to imprisonment at 5years post-SUT compared with those who dropped out late (-2.6%, 95% CI = -2.2, -3.1) and early (-4.0%, 95% CI = -3.3, -4.6). These differences were also observed at 1 and 3years post-SUT for each outcome. In Chile, completion of substance use treatment appears to be associated with lower probabilities of both any criminal justice system contact and contact leading to imprisonment.

Examining Justice System Exposure Among Youth on Health in Young Adulthood: Does Dosage of Contact Matter?

Drawing on juvenile justice and social determinants of health literature, this study examines the influence of three levels of justice system contact among juveniles – police stop, arrest, adjudication – on depression, suicide ideation, and general health in young adulthood. Mahalanobis distance matching utilizing National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data test whether dosage of system contact negatively impacts health in young adulthood. Additional analyses compare within system contact differences to identify magnitude of health consequences for systems-involved individuals. Arrest and adjudication experiences as a juvenile negatively impacted at least one health outcome in young adulthood relative to those with no contact. Depression was significantly higher among those with an adjudication experience relative to those with an arrest experience. Results support further exploring juvenile justice system experiences as a social determinant of health.

School to prison pipelines: Associations between school exclusion, neurodisability and age of first conviction in male prisoners

Both school exclusion and neurodisability are prospective markers for increased risk of subsequent contact with criminal justice system in general and justice-involved samples. However, relationships between school exclusion, neurodisability, and age at first conviction have received minimal attention. Age at first conviction is an important outcome, as justice system contact is criminogenic, so people convicted at a younger age are at risk of becoming entrenched in the system. This issue was addressed with data collected from 3035 convicted male adults, who completed the Do-IT Profiler screening assessment in HMP Parc (Wales, UK). Multiple school exclusions were associated with earlier first convictions, with those excluded once, 2–3 times, and 4 or more times being first convicted 3, 5, and 6 years earlier on average than the never-excluded cohort. Of the excluded cohort, 45% were sent to a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) (a facility for children excluded from mainstream school). They were first convicted an average of 2 years younger than those who were excluded but never sent to a PRU, and an average of 6 years younger than those who were never excluded. This suggests that being sent to a PRU is associated with earlier first convictions than exclusion alone. Each standard deviation increase in neurodisability (indexed by lower scores on a functional skills screener, used here as a proxy for neurodisability) was associated with being 0.5 years younger at first conviction. Finally, school exclusion was correlated with scores on the functional skills screener, suggesting that school exclusion could be a potential mechanism for the criminalisation of children with neurodisability. These findings elucidate associations between school exclusion (including PRU referral), poor functional skills indicative of neurodisability, and criminalisation at a younger age in prison populations.

College Students’ Attitudes Toward Denying Admission to Prospective Students with Criminal Records

ABSTRACT Each year, thousands of prospective students are denied admission to universities because they possess a criminal record. Prior research finds that university officials and faculty are generally accepting of those with records attending universities. To date, few studies have examined the perspectives of college students on this matter. The current study adds to this literature by examining college students’ (n = 846) attitudes toward denying individuals admission to universities based on possessing a criminal record. The results reveal general opposition toward denying prospective students solely on the basis of possessing a record. However, divisions exist among students and fall on factors related to criminal justice system contact and racial, punitive, and political viewpoints.

Adverse childhood experiences, morbidity, mortality and resilience in socially excluded populations: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionSocially excluded populations, defined by homelessness, substance use disorder, sex work or criminal justice system contact, experience profound health inequity compared with the general population. Cumulative exposure to adverse childhood...

The racial/ethnic health consequences of the U.S. criminal justice system: How consequential is probation and other justice system contact for self-rated and chronic conditions?

A growing body of literature has focused on the health consequences linked to contact with the U.S. criminal justice system. Due to data limitations, however, most emphasize arrests, convictions, and/or incarceration in isolation, while overlooking other important types of criminal justice contact, especially probation. Additionally, exposure to the criminal justice system and access to resources that shape the impact of exposure are unevenly distributed across racial groups, yet few studies utilize frameworks that account for these inequities. We address these gaps by examining the associations between five types of criminal justice contact, including probation, on two health outcomes, using a within race-ethnicity framework. Key findings show that probation was associated with poorer health particularly for Black Americans alongside other types of criminal justice contact. We also found limited evidence that some types of contact significantly shaped health patterns for Hispanics and White Americans.

Deaths caused by non-communicable disease among people with a history of youth justice system contact

Deaths caused by non-communicable disease among people with a history of youth justice system contact

The Past and Present of Crime Research inSocial Forces: How the Sociology of Crime Lost its Roots—And Found Them Again

AbstractThe centennial of Social Forces provides an opportunity to examine change and stability in crime research in one of sociology’s oldest journals. Since the first issue of Social Forces in 1922, crime and punishment have transitioned from marginal topics subsumed under the umbrella of deviance studies to a central research area. This essay traces the intellectual development of crime research as captured in Social Forces’ pages and contrasts it with the growing independence of criminology as an academic field. To do so, I employ two analyses. First, I examine the topical classifications provided by Moody, Edelmann and Light (2022). Second, I expand upon these classifications by using structural topic models (STM) to detect clusters of crime research activity in Social Forces’ abstracts and group them into “eras” of crime research. The analysis reveals a circular development of crime research in Social Forces that reflects broader trends in the sociology of crime. 1 Themes of power, stratification, and punishment oriented early studies on crime. Research attention focused on inequality within the justice system, the effects of juvenile justice contact on criminal labeling and recidivism, and inequalities resulting from justice system contact. However, as crime rates rose throughout the Western world, Social Forces articles sought to explain the causes of crime and evaluate policies designed to cull the crime wave. In recent decades, persistent crime declines combined with growing concern with an oversized prison system have refocused attention on incarceration and its collateral consequences, especially for adolescent well-being and racial and class inequalities. In this way, crime research in Social Forces has returned to core themes of power and stratification that motivated early work in the sociology of crime. It has also distanced itself from individual etiology and policy studies that once dominated the journal’s pages and that continue to appear in specialist outlets.

Criminal justice system contact of students with disabilities by race and ethnicity: Examining the role of school police

Schools are a common site of criminal justice system contact for students with disabilities (SWD), especially Black and multiracial SWD. The presence of police in schools may increase the frequency with which SWD are arrested or otherwise referred to law enforcement. This study examines the relationship between police in schools and (a) arrests and (b) referrals to law enforcement of SWD, including differences across racial/ethnic groups of SWD. It uses a difference-in-differences design drawing on two waves of data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (N = 88,479 schools). A series of two-way fixed effects models estimates the impact of either adding or removing police on the rates of arrest and referral to law enforcement of SWD. Results were mixed, with heterogeneity across both treatment-comparison conditions and racial/ethnic groups of SWD. The findings are interpreted through a lens of equity in how schools address student behavior.

Justice System Contact and Health: Do Immigrants Fair Better or Worse than the Native-Born after Arrest, Probation, or Incarceration?

Despite decades of both macro- and micro-level studies showing immigration to be unassociated or negatively linked to crime, research examining the consequences of justice system contact among immigrants has been comparatively underdeveloped. The current study examines whether justice system contact (arrest, probation, and incarceration) is linked to poorer health and, in turn, whether there were differences in how justice system contact is related to immigrant versus native-born health. Using data from multiple waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we construct both ordinal and Poisson regression models predicting poor self-rated health and the prevalence of chronic health conditions for both foreign-born and native-born groups, as well as different generations. The findings suggest important differences by nativity, immigrant generation, and type of justice system contact. Despite lower criminality than the native-born, the health of immigrants is deleteriously impacted by some types of justice system contact, especially incarceration, while probation is more strongly linked to poor health among the native-born. Our findings carry implications for the provision of care for individuals with histories of criminal justice involvement, as well as academic research examining the consequences of justice contact and the immigration–crime nexus.

The clinical stages of psychosis among violent and non-violent adult prisoners in Australia

IntroductionPast research examining the relationship between psychosis and criminality has typically focused on chronic schizophrenia and violence. However, contact with the criminal justice system is not constrained to the most unwell or most violent. The present study is novel as it examines the different clinical stages of psychosis, from the at-risk mental states (ARMS)/Ultra-High Risk (UHR) to the early and chronic psychotic illness phase, across the entire spectrum of criminal offending.ObjectivesThe main study objective is to establish the prevalence of the clinical stages of psychosis among adults entering custody and to examine the sociodemographic and forensic characteristics associated with the different stages of psychosis. A further aim is to examine whether psychosis-spectrum prisoners differ from non-psychotic prison controls across these characteristics.MethodsParticipants consist of unselected 291 adult male and female prisoners entering the largest maximum security reception centres in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. They completed a range of semi-structured questionnaires and adapted mental health screening measures. The Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States (CAARMS; Yung et al., 2005) was used to ascertain whether participants met the Ultra High Risk (UHR), First Episode of Psychosis (FEP) or Established Psychosis (EP) criteria.ResultsParticipants were 34.25 years old (SD = 10.69) on average and men were significantly older than women (p = 0.035). Among prisoners with a psychosis-spectrum illness (n = 121), the prevalence of UHR was 24%, First Episode Psychosis (FEP) was 6% and established psychosis was 11%. Compared to controls, psychosis spectrum prisoners were found to have higher levels of social disadvantage, psychiatric comorbidities and multiple incarceration episodes. However, psychosis was not associated with a greater risk of violent offending. Implications on the complex illness burden associated with psychosis and the need for early identification and intervention across forensic mental health services will be further discussed.ConclusionsThis study is novel as it examines the full spectrum of psychotic illness across the entire spectrum of criminal offending. The findings support the notion that risk of criminal justice contact and complex illness burden exist across the different clinical stages of psychosis, from the UHR to the early FEP and chronic psychosis stages, for both violent and non-violent offending. Early intervention services must consider how to more effectively identify and intervene to reduce the risk of criminal justice system contact among mentally ill individuals.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

An Empirical Test of Dual System Pathways

Although a growing body of research has documented the characteristics and experiences of young people with child welfare and juvenile justice system contact (i.e., dual system involvement), less is known about the pathways leading to dual system involvement. Sequence analysis was used to empirically identify pathways by plotting child welfare and juvenile justice spells for a cohort of 4404 dual system youth in Los Angeles County between 2014 to 2016. Procedures produced a five-cluster model delineated by the extent of child welfare involvement and the ages at which involvement occurred. Comparisons across pathways demonstrated that youth with less child welfare involvement in childhood had the least intrusive juvenile justice experiences and lower recidivism than youth experiencing longer and deeper child welfare involvement in late childhood and adolescence. Pathway findings have significant implications for building a delinquency prevention continuum prior to system involvement and after involvement for young people and their family members who enter the child welfare system.

Early Versus Late Contact with the Youth Justice System: Differences in Characteristics Measured at Birth, Child Protection System Contact and Adolescent Mental Health Outcomes.

ObjectiveTo examine differences in youth justice (YJ) system contact patterns, early life characteristics, child protection system contact, and adolescent mental health outcomes among young people who have early, late or no contact with the YJ system. ApproachData were from the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform including children in South Australia born 1991-2002, followed from birth to age 18 (n=249,995). Young people were categorised into three groups: 1) those who had their first YJ supervision before age 14, i.e., those who had ‘early’ contact; 2) those who had their first YJ supervision at age 14 or older, i.e., those who had ‘late’ contact; and 3) those who had no contact with the YJ system by age 18. ResultsOf the 249,995 children born 1991-2002, 4,097 (1.6%) had YJ contact. Of these, 667 (16.3%) had their first YJ supervision early, and 3,430 (83.7%) had their first YJ supervision late. Compared to the late contact group, young people with early contact had more serious YJ contact patterns (e.g., 91% versus 59% ever experienced custodial supervision). Compared to the late contact and no YJ contact groups, the early contact group were: more disadvantaged at birth; had more serious child protection contact by age 10; and a higher proportion had experienced at least one mental health-related hospitalisation from ages 12-18. ConclusionThis analysis demonstrates the complex circumstances that precede and co-occur with YJ involvement. Early life adversity and poor adolescent mental health were more pronounced for young people who had early contact with YJ, compared to those who had late contact. This points to the need for investment in early supports.