Criminal Offending and Incarceration in United States Adults With Early Phase Psychosis and Comorbid Substance Use Disorder

Abstract

Aim: Studies have shown that people experiencing early phase psychosis (EPP) are at increased risk for criminal conviction and incarceration. However, there is limited data looking at overall legal burden. To address these gaps in the literature, the goal of this study was to categorise criminal charges and convictions using the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uniform crime reporting (UCR) program, assess frequency of incarcerations, and describe the frequency of substance use disorder (SUD) diagnoses and its relationship to criminal offending and incarceration in a well categorised EPP population.

Methods: A sample of 309 adults experiencing EPP were enrolled in a specialty care clinic. The research team expanded upon prior work and collected data from three public databases to identify legal burden in this population.

Results: Almost 50% (n = 155) of subjects had a history of a criminal charge, 34% (n = 104) of subjects had a history of criminal conviction, and 40% (n = 123) of subjects had at least one incarceration event. The most common typology of criminal offence were crimes against society. Lastly, a dual diagnosis was statistically associated with incarcerations (χ2 = 10.152, p < 0.0011), crimes against society (χ2 = 13.172, p < 0.0002), and crimes against persons (χ2 = 9.136, p < 0.0023).

Conclusions: These data highlight the high legal burden people experiencing EPP face and the need for future work to examine the risks incarceration places on this population. This work also shows the need for specialty care clinics managing EPP to be proficient in treating a dual diagnosis or the need to partner with an appropriate clinic.