Misdemeanor Charges among Persons with Serious Mental Illnesses

Individuals with serious mental illnesses (SMI), such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than those without SMI. Their arrests are often for non-violent, misdemeanor 'quality of life' and 'public nuisance' charges. Such arrests and incarcerations interfere with treatment and recovery. This problem of 'criminalization' of individuals with SMI is widely recognized, and programs are being put in place to try to reduce arrests that are not necessary, and instead refer these individuals to mental health treatment services. Despite nationwide efforts to develop models of 'pre-arrest jail diversion' (i.e., diverting from the criminal justice system to the mental health system), research has yet to identify which misdemeanor charges are most over-represented among persons with SMI. Effective pre-arrest jail diversion programs--to address the problem of over-representation of persons with SMI in jails--will only be effective if we understand the use and prosecution of the most commonly applied misdemeanor charges.

The overarching goal of this project is to study the implementation, meaning, and use of particular laws/charges and how they contribute to the over-representation of persons with SMI in the criminal justice system. The project will consist of a multi-site (Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia), mixed-methods study. Specifically, the research team will first analyze two different datasets (one administrative, and one clinical) to identify the 2-5 misdemeanor charges that appear to be most over-represented among individuals with SMI. Next, the team will carry out four 'systems mapping exercises' in the four different cities in order to understand the use and processing of these specific misdemeanor charges in different settings. Then, the investigators will conduct three focus groups in each of the four cities (12 in total) to gain a rich, in-depth understanding of the use of these charges. The project will create an explanatory theory to understand how police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges understand, apply, make use of, potentially over-use, or rely upon certain types of misdemeanor charges among individuals with SMI. Such an explanatory theory will serve as a foundation for further, definitive research, as well as policy and program development.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.