Childhood risk factors for criminal justice involvement in a sample of homeless people with serious mental illness

It has been suggested that criminal justice involvement among the homeless, particularly those with mental illness, is largely situational. The object ive of this study was to assess, in a sample of homeless seriously mentally ill people, the prevalence of childhood conduct disorder behaviors as a ri sk factor for adult criminal activity as well as the extent and types of ad ult criminal justice contact. Data were taken from the national ACCESS prog ram, which conducted extensive baseline interviews with 7222 homeless serio usly mentally ill adults. The interview assessed demographics, childhood ri sk factors for criminal activity such as conduct disorder behaviors, foster care, and parental abuse, as well as current illness severity and recent c riminal justice contact. The 2-month arrest rate in this sample was much hi gher than national rates (11% compared with 1% annually in the general popu lation)Although most arrests were for minor crimes (10.8%), there were also substantial rates of arrest for major (2.7%) and substance-related charges (2.0%). The prevalence of a history of conduct disorder behavior was also substantial (50% in male subjects, 40% in female subjects), and conduct dis order was a strong predictor of recent criminal justice involvement, even a fter controlling for other predictors of arrest (odds ratio = 1.76 for majo r crimes, 1.49 for minor crimes, and 1.98 for substance-related crimes), Re cent Literature has criticized a trend to criminalize homeless mentally ill persons for attempting to get needed food, shelter, or medical attention. However. these data indicate that at least some proportion of arrests in th is population are of people who have been exhibiting antisocial behavior si nce early adolescence, and that early antisocial behavior is a strong predi ctor of all types of recent arrests in this population.