The mortality risks of justice-involved individuals: An analysis of a five-state sample

• In Event: Measurement and Methodologies in Life Course Criminology

Abstract

Existing research on the mortality of justice-involved individuals (JIIs) is limited to highly selected groups of convicted and/or incarcerated individuals for serious offense, lacking representative sampling across various types of justice involvement. We define justice involvement broadly as anyone who has an administrative record in a state-level justice agency (e.g., police, court, corrections, probation, and parole). For this purpose, we use the new Criminal Justice Administrative Records Systems (CJARS) data, a national-level repository gathered from state agencies indicating individual justice involvement. Linking CJARS data from five states with the Mortality Disparities across American Communities (MDAC) data from Census Bureau, we examine the cause of death for JIIs and estimate the mortality risk of JIIs compared with the general population using multiple matching strategies. We discuss results within the context of policy and data limitations.

Authors

• Siyu Liu, Penn State Harrisburg

• Joe Risi, Penn State University

• Samuel E. DeWitt, American Institutes for Research

• Megan Denver, Northeastern University