Impact of traumatic life events on criminal recidivism among mental health court participants

Background: Trauma is prevalent among individuals within the criminal justice and mental health systems.  Compounding this issue, growing evidence suggests that trauma is associated with poorer criminal justice outcomes. 

Methods: This retrospective study explored trauma-related risk factors and criminal recidivism outcomes for 165 mental health court participants.  Psychosocial assessments containing self-reported trauma histories were merged with probation department records from 2006 to 2012.  Bivariate analyses were used to assess the relationship between demographic, trauma-related, and criminogenic variables and re-arrest during mental health court. Variables with a significant association were entered into a binary logistic regression model to identify predictors of re-arrest.

Findings: Approximately half of all mental health court participants reported experiencing childhood abuse, while roughly 20%, 15%, and 10% reported experiencing a violent crime, intimate partner violence, or sexual assault as an adult, respectively. Participants who experienced childhood emotional abuse were 2.5 times more likely than participants who had not experienced childhood emotional abuse to be re-arrested during mental health court.  Experiencing childhood sexual abuse, childhood physical abuse, or intimate partner violence was not predictive of re-offending.

Implications:  This study underscores the importance of trauma-informed criminal justice programs and policies for persons with mental illness.  While by design mental health courts aim to reduce recidivism by improving mental health, this study demonstrates the importance of a trauma-focused program design to address additional underlying risk factors for recidivism.