Mental Illness, Drug Use, and Criminal Involvement: Moving Beyond Comorbidity in Search of Specific Connections

• In Event: Mental Health, Drug Use and Criminality

Abstract

Prior research has established that mental illness is linked to criminal involvement and drug use. However, most of these studies merely report that these variables are comorbid and do not look beyond this fact to study the exact relationships between mental illness, drug use and criminal involvement. In this paper, we will move beyond prior research and seek to find potential connections that these variables have, specifically by assessing mental illness working indirectly through drug use to influence criminal involvement and as being a confounding factor that renders the drug use-criminal involvement relationship spurious. We will also move beyond comorbidity by studying mental health symptoms and drug choice as specific correlates to criminal involvement. Data for this project were obtained from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome study, and results and future implications for research will be discussed.

Authors

• Carrie Mier, Florida State University

• Wanda Staub, Florida State University