Criminology & Criminal Justice
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2227
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Item GENDER AND SEXUAL MINORITY MENTAL HEALTH AND USE OF CARE IN PRISON(2023) Sherrick, Alyse Natalyn; Bersani, Bianca E.; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Non-white and gender and sexual minority (GSM) individuals experience minority stress through stigmatization and marginalization which can lead to higher rates of mental health issues, and limited access to healthcare. Using an intersectionality framework, these mental health issues are compounded for individuals with both GSM and non-white identities. Within the incarceration setting, mental health issues may be exacerbated due to the pains of imprisonment which can lead to frustration and psychological distress, along with differentially adverse experiences for GSM and non-white individuals. This study examines mental health symptoms, diagnoses, and use of care for GSM, non-white, and the intersection of GSM and non-white individuals in correctional facilities using the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates (N=24,234). In nearly all the analyses GSM individuals and GSM non-white individuals had higher rates of mental health symptoms, diagnoses, and care, and non-white individuals had significantly lower rates of mental health symptoms, diagnoses, and use of care. This may indicate that GSM individuals continue to experience pains of imprisonment despite higher use of mental health care, and that there may be a need for GSM-specific mental health care. Non-white individuals may have lower rates of symptoms and diagnoses due to White-centric frames of evaluation and fear of approaching providers for needed healthcare. It may be useful to develop culturally sensitive evaluation criteria for non-white individuals. This study is the first of its kind to look at mental health symptoms of GSM individuals in prison in a nationally representative sample.Item Exploring Heterogeneity in Disciplinary Custody Sanctioning and Subsequent Inmate Misconduct(2021) Glazener, Emily Morgan; McGloin, Jean M; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Solitary confinement is often used as a form of punishment for inmate misconduct, a practice known as disciplinary custody. One justification for the use of disciplinary custody is that it should deter future misconduct by increasing the perceived costs associated with committing an infraction. However, research on the deterrent effect of disciplinary custody is limited, largely due to a conceptualization of it as a singular experience, which ignores significant heterogeneity within that punishment. The few studies that have examined one type of treatment heterogeneity, length of stay, are limited in the grouping of varying forms of isolation, such as administrative custody and disciplinary custody, or in the scope of behavior examined post-release from disciplinary custody.This dissertation built on past studies by examining two types of treatment heterogeneity: (1) length of stay by focusing specifically on disciplinary custody and expanding on the types of misconduct (beyond violent acts) considered post-release from disciplinary custody; and (2) an early release mechanism. With data from a large state correctional system, this study utilized a sample of first time admissions from 2012 to 2014 who experienced a disciplinary custody stay, and their institutional outcomes were followed through August 2017. This study used inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment, including a large array of relevant covariates to account for pre-existing differences in the treatment conditions examined. The results of this study do not support specific deterrence theory justifications for the use of disciplinary custody. There was no evidence that increased severity of disciplinary custody stays, either through longer lengths of stay or through serving more than the original sanction length assigned, resulted in lower likelihoods of subsequent misconduct or fewer days until a subsequent misconduct. Implications and future directions are discussed.Item THE ROLE OF ROMANTIC PARTNERS IN THE PROCESS OF WOMEN'S REENTRY IN CHILE(2020) Larroulet Philippi, Pilar; Simpson, Sally S; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the growth of reentry literature in recent decades, little is known regarding the role romantic partners play in the process of transition back into the community. There is a well-developed literature regarding the “good marriage” effect on desistance, but studies have been conducted mostly with male samples, in the United States, and in times and social contexts where being married is considered normative. For females, however, the feminist literature points to the romantic partner as a potential source of criminogenic influence. Whether being in a romantic relationship will have any positive impact on females’ reentry is still an open question, as is whether that impact would be conditional on the characteristics of those relationships and specific partners. Even more, until now, we know relatively little about who those partners are and how often women change partners after release. The present dissertation seeks to address these gaps using data from the study “Reinserción, Desistimiento y Reincidencia en Mujeres Privadas de Libertad en Chile” [Reintegration, Desistance, and Recidivism Among Female Inmates in Chile]. The study follows a cohort of 207 women released from prison in Santiago, Chile over one calendar year. The results confirm the prevalence of not-married relationships among female reentering society, and show a great deal of heterogeneity in the characteristics of those relationships and partners. The analyses also reflect an important level of change in partnership in the twelve months following release. Further, the type of partners to whom women have access varies significantly by different groups of female offenders, as defined by their pathways into prison. Regarding recidivism, the results show that being involved in a romantic relationship is not associated with the chances of recidivism. However, when the specific characteristics of the relationships and partners are considered, partners’ behaviors are a consistent correlate of recidivism. As a whole, the results challenge the generalizability of life course criminological theory and highlight the need to incorporate a feminist perspective into research on reentry and desistance.Item SMART SENTENCING: A LOOK AT THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF PRISONS AND JAILS(2018) Frey, Kathleen; Nakamura, Kiminori; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Criminological research has long explored the impact of incarceration on recidivism. However this line of research typically combines jail and prison as a single type of incarceration sentence and does not distinguish between these two different sentences. Judges often can choose between a prison or jail sentence for certain categories of offenders, but little research offers any perspective on potentially differential impacts of the two types of sentences on recidivism. The lack of understanding about the consequences of prison and jail sentences hampers the efforts to improve the criminal justice system. Using data from Pennsylvania, the current study examines the impacts of prison and jail, as two separate types of sentences, on recidivism. Pennsylvania offers a unique sample of offenders where jail inmates may be serving up to five years’ incarceration and prison inmates may be serving a sentence shorter than 1 year , compared to most other states where jail is typically a 1-year sentence or less and prison serves for sentences longer than 1 year. Propensity score matching was utilized to compare those with jail and prison sentences who are otherwise comparable, thus allowing balance on observables. In particular, the sentencing guidelines were utilized to ensure the comparability of offenders regarding the seriousness of the current offense and the prior record and to focus on offenders who could have received either prison or jail sentence based on judicial discretion. Results from a statewide sample indicate that within a short follow-up period following release from incarceration, there is largely a null effect of prison on rearrest. However, given longer recidivism follow-up periods, prison is shown to increase the probability of rearrest compared to jail. Although, using a county sample reveals a negative effect of prison on rearrest within a year of release, once reincarceration is accounted for and longer follow-up periods are used, there is largely a null effect of prison on recidivism. Several subsamples were examined revealing largely null effects. Findings indicated racial differences in recidivism based on confinement in prisons and jail. Additional tests were conducted to attempt to understand the differences within facilities that could affect recidivism by comparing across jails, although the results were largely null. Findings from this study reveal key policy implications regarding judicial decision making. In the long-term, once reincarceration is taken into account, there is no strong evidence to suggest that a difference in recidivism exists between prison and jail, suggesting that judge sentencing decisions can be guided by budgetary concerns and facility capacity.