Mental Health and Crime
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 June 2019
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0098
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 June 2019
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0098
Introduction
Individuals with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. This is a population that poses a number of unique challenges to the correctional system, from the adjudication process through community reentry. The current state of the science on offenders with mental illness can largely be categorized into two overarching themes: (a) understanding how people with mental illness come to—and continue to be involved in—the criminal justice system and (b) determining how to best manage this population at all stages of the criminal justice system. This entry highlights the literature that speaks to these two overarching themes by presenting the most well-known, well-cited, and/or methodologically rigorous peer-reviewed empirical studies and, when relevant and indicated as such, book chapters, review articles, and theoretical manuscripts. This article is organized primarily by the main issues into which these two broad themes can be further divided. The sources included in this article emphasize offenders with serious mental illness, but some focus more broadly on mental illness and psychiatric symptoms in general. The literature on persons with mental retardation, those with cognitive deficits, and sex offenders are excluded from this article.
General Overviews
The two texts listed in this section provide a general overview of the issues relating broadly to mental health and crime. Texts that have a more specific focus are listed under the relevant subsections of this annotated bibliography. Teplin 1984 provides an excellent historical perspective on mental health and criminal justice issues, and Peay 2011, a more recent publication, offers an updated analysis of the empirical literature and issues surrounding this topic.
Peay, J. 2011. Mental health and crime. London: Routledge.
Examines the relationship between mental health and crime, including issues related to causality, human rights, law, and treatment.
Teplin, L., ed. 1984. Mental health and criminal justice. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
Provides a broad overview of the issues related to mental health and criminal justice with a focus on (a) legal structure and social definition; (b) the dynamics of intersystem processing; (c) policing of the mentally ill; (d) the definition and management of deviant behavior; and (e) conviction, incarceration, and parole of the mentally disordered offender.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Active Offender Research
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Aging Prison Population, The
- Airport and Airline Security
- Alcohol and Drug Prohibition
- Alcohol Use, Policy and Crime
- Alt-Right Gangs and White Power Youth Groups
- Animals, Crimes Against
- Anomie
- Arson
- Bail and Pretrial Detention
- Biosocial Criminology
- Blackmail
- Black's Theory of Law and Social Control
- Blumstein, Alfred
- Boot Camps and Shock Incarceration Programs
- Burglary, Residential
- Bystander Intervention
- Capital Punishment
- Chicago School of Criminology, The
- Child Maltreatment
- Chinese Triad Society
- Civil Protection Orders
- Collateral Consequences of Felony Conviction and Imprisonm...
- Collective Efficacy
- Commercial and Bank Robbery
- Communicating Scientific Findings in the Courtroom
- Community Change and Crime
- Community Corrections
- Community Disadvantage and Crime
- Community-Based Justice Systems
- Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
- CompStat Models of Police Performance Management
- Confessions, False and Coerced
- Contextual Analysis of Crime
- Control Balance Theory
- Convict Criminology
- Corporate Crime
- Costs of Crime and Justice
- Courts, Problem-Solving
- Crime and Justice in Latin America
- Crime Control Policy
- Crime Control, Politics of
- Crime, (In)Security, and Islam
- Crime Prevention, Delinquency and
- Crime Prevention, Situational
- Crime Trends
- Crime Victims' Rights Movement
- Criminal Career Research
- Criminal Decision Making, Emotions in
- Criminal Justice Data Sources
- Criminal Justice Ethics
- Criminal Justice Reform, Politics of
- Criminal Justice System, Discretion in the
- Criminal Records
- Criminal Retaliation
- Criminal Talk
- Criminology and Political Science
- Criminology of Genocide, The
- Critical Criminology
- Cross-National Crime
- Cultural Criminology
- Cultural Theories
- Cybercrime
- Cycle of Violence
- Desistance
- Deterrence
- Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Digital Piracy
- Driving and Traffic Offenses
- Drug Control
- Drug Courts
- Drug Trafficking, International
- Drugs and Crime
- Electronically Monitored Home Confinement
- Employee Theft
- Environmental Crime and Justice
- Experimental Criminology
- Family Violence
- Fear of Crime and Perceived Risk
- Felon Disenfranchisement
- Femicide
- Feminist Theories
- Feminist Victimization Theories
- Fencing and Stolen Goods Markets
- Firearms and Violence
- Forensic Science
- Fraud
- Gangs, Peers, and Co-offending
- Gender and Crime
- General Opportunity Victimization Theories
- Genetics, Environment, and Crime
- Green Criminology
- Harm Reduction and Risky Behaviors
- Hate Crime
- Hate Crime Legislation
- Healthcare Fraud
- Hirschi, Travis
- History of Crime in the United Kingdom
- History of Criminology
- Homelessness and Crime
- Homicide
- Homicide Victimization
- Honor Cultures and Violence
- Hot Spots Policing
- Human Rights
- Human Trafficking
- Identity Theft
- Immigration, Crime, and Justice
- Incarceration, Mass
- Incarceration, Public Health Effects of
- Income Tax Evasion
- Institutional Anomie Theory
- Integrated Theory
- Interpersonal Violence, Historical Patterns of
- Interrogation
- Intimate Partner Violence, Criminological Perspectives on
- Intimate Partner Violence, Police Responses to
- Investigation, Criminal
- Juvenile Delinquency
- Juvenile Justice System, The
- Kidnapping
- Kornhauser, Ruth Rosner
- Labeling Theory
- Labor Markets and Crime
- Land Use and Crime
- Lead and Crime
- Legitimacy
- LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence
- Local Institutions and Neighborhood Crime
- Lombroso, Cesare
- Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
- Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Crime, The
- Mass Media, Crime, and Justice
- Measuring Crime
- Mediation and Dispute Resolution Programs
- Mental Health and Crime
- Mental Health Courts
- Meta-analysis in Criminology
- Middle-Class Crime and Criminality
- Migrant Detention and Incarceration
- Money Laundering
- Motor Vehicle Theft
- Narrative Criminology
- National Deviancy Symposia, The
- Nature Versus Nurture
- Neighborhood Disorder
- Neutralization Theory
- New Penology, The
- Offender Decision-Making and Motivation
- Offense Specialization/Expertise
- Organized Crime
- Panel Methods in Criminology
- Peacemaking Criminology
- Peer Networks and Delinquency
- Performance Measurement and Accountability Systems
- Personality and Trait Theories of Crime
- Persons with a Mental Illness, Police Encounters with
- Phenomenological Theories of Crime
- Plea Bargaining
- Poaching
- Police Administration
- Police Cooperation, International
- Police Effectiveness
- Police History
- Police Militarization
- Police Misconduct
- Police, Race and the
- Police Use of Force
- Police, Violence against the
- Policing and Law Enforcement
- Policing, Broken Windows
- Policing, Community and Problem-Oriented
- Policing Cybercrime
- Policing, Evidence-Based
- Policing, Intelligence-Led
- Policing, Privatization of
- Policing, Proactive
- Policing, School
- Policing, Third Party
- Polyvictimization
- Prison Education Exchange Programs
- Prison Gangs and Subculture
- Prison History
- Prison Labor
- Prison Visitation
- Prisoner Reentry
- Prisons and Jails
- Procedural Justice
- Property Crime
- Prosecution and Courts
- Prostitution
- Psychiatry, Psychology, and Crime: Historical and Current ...
- Psychology and Crime
- Public Criminology
- Public Opinion, Crime and Justice
- Public Order Crimes
- Public Social Control and Neighborhood Crime
- Punishment Justification and Goals
- Qualitative Methods in Criminology
- Queer Criminology
- Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice
- Racial Threat Hypothesis
- Racial Profiling
- Rape and Sexual Assault
- Rape, Fear of
- Rational Choice Theories
- Rehabilitation
- Religion and Crime
- Restorative Justice
- Risk Assessment
- Routine Activity Theories
- School Bullying
- School Crime and Violence
- Seasonality and Crime
- Self-Control, The General Theory:
- Self-Report Crime Surveys
- Sentencing Enhancements
- Sentencing Guidelines
- Sentencing Policy
- Sex Crimes
- Sex Offender Policies and Legislation
- Sex Trafficking
- Sexual Revictimization
- Situational Action Theory
- Snitching and Use of Criminal Informants
- Social and Intellectual Context of Criminology, The
- Social Construction of Crime, The
- Social Control of Tobacco Use
- Social Control Theory
- Social Disorganization
- Social Ecology of Crime
- Social Learning Theory
- Social Networks
- Social Threat and Social Control
- Solitary Confinement
- South Africa, Crime and Justice in
- Sport Mega-Events Security
- Stalking and Harassment
- State Crime
- State Dependence and Population Heterogeneity in Theories ...
- Strain Theories
- Street Code
- Street Robbery
- Substance Use and Abuse
- Surveillance, Public and Private
- Sutherland, Edwin H.
- Technology and the Criminal Justice System
- Technology, Criminal Use of
- Terrorism
- Terrorism and Hate Crime
- Terrorism, Criminological Explanations for
- Testimony, Eyewitness
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence
- Trajectory Methods in Criminology
- Transnational Crime
- Truth-In-Sentencing
- Urban Politics and Crime
- US War on Terrorism, Legal Perspectives on the
- Victimization, Adolescent
- Victimization, Biosocial Theories of
- Victimization Patterns and Trends
- Victimization, Repeat
- Victimization, Vicarious and Related Forms of Secondary Tr...
- Victimless Crime
- Victim-Offender Overlap, The
- Violence Against Women
- Violence, Youth
- Violent Crime
- White-Collar Crime
- Wilson, James Q.
- Women, Girls, and Reentry
- Wrongful Conviction