The Impact of Deinstitutionalization on Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The deinstitutionalization movement in the U.S. led to the release of large numbers of persons with severe mental illness into community-based treatment programs. For a variety of reasons, this led to increased contacts between law enforcement officers and mentally ill persons in crisis. This had important consequences for the criminal justice system and several scholars have studied the impact of deinstitutionalization on crime, arrests, and prison populations, while others have shown that some mentally ill persons are more prone to violence than non-mentally persons. Despite this body of research and ample anecdotal evidence suggesting the dangerousness of police encounters with mentally ill persons in crisis, it is unknown whether or not deinstitutionalization increased levels of violence against the police. The present study helps fill this gap by analyzing panel data over 25 years (1972 – 1996) to assess the relationship between state-level institutionalized populations and police fatal and nonfatal assaults.

Authors

• Xueyi Xing, University of South Carolina

• Robert J. Kaminski, University of South Carolina