Crime, HIV and Health: Intersections of Criminal Justice and Public Health Concerns

323 Pages·2013·2.66 MB·English

by  Bill Sanders Ph.D. (auth.), Bill Sanders, Yonette F. Thomas, Bethany Griffin Deeds (eds.)

Crime, HIV and Health: Intersections
of Criminal Justice and Public Health Concerns

Bill Sanders (cid:129) Yonette F. Thomas
Bethany Grif fi n Deeds
Editors
Crime, HIV and Health:
Intersections of Criminal
Justice and Public Health
Concerns
Editors
Bill Sanders Yonette F. Thomas
School of Criminal Justice and Of fi ce of Regulatory Research Compliance
Criminalistics Howard University
California State University, Los Angeles Washington, DC, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA
Bethany Grif fi n Deeds
Division of Epidemiology, Services
and Prevention Research
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Drug Abuse
Bethesda, USA
ISBN 978-90-481-8920-5 ISBN 978-90-481-8921-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8921-2
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012948421
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Dedication from Bill Sanders
For Elliz: It’s nice to be nice!

Introduction
Signi fi cant overlaps have emerged between the fi elds of criminal justice and public
health. For instance, in 1985 then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop convened
a workshop on violence and public health, indicating that violence had reached
epidemic proportions, claiming an estimated four million victims each year, particu-
larly children, women, and the elderly (Koop 1986). While violence is a traditional
criminal justice concern, violence profoundly affected the public health of Americans,
and Koop called for more exchanges and interrelationships between professionals
whose work straddles violence: psychiatrics, pediatricians, researchers, the police,
and the media.
Years later, Hawkins and Catalano were part of a team that developed the ‘Causes
and Correlates’ study. Here, the authors promoted the use of a ‘risk factor’ approach
towards the study and treatment of substance use (and later delinquency) that was
re fi ned from a public health model on reducing the risk of disease (Hawkins et al.
1992). For instance, Hawkins and Catalano indicated that drug use and offending, like
health, could be somewhat predicted by the number of risk factors in an individual’s
life. The more risk factors that are present, the greater the risk. Risk for heart disease
included poor diet, smoking, and a lack of exercise, and that by reducing participation
in these behaviors individuals were signi fi cantly less likely to develop heart disease.
In a similar vein, intervening among the risk factors in a youth’s life that were
related to substance use and delinquency – peer in fl uence, negative parent/child
interactions, deprivation – would reduce that youth’s involvement in those behaviors.
Research from the risk factor approach also led to the development of screening
tools used by professionals in the juvenile justice system to offer more objective and
comprehensive assessments of youth in custody (Krisberg 2005).
Common ground between criminal justice and public health have been explored
in edited collections, including Kawachi and Berkman’s (2003) N eighborhoods and
Health , Levy and Sidel’s (2006) Social Injustice and Public Health , and Grei fi nger’s
(2007) Public Health Behind Bars , and in presentations at annual meetings of two
national academic associations: the American Public Health Association (APHA)
and the American Society of Criminology (ASC) – the largest associations in the
world for their respective fi elds.
vii
viii Introduction
The ASC has contained a handful of presentations that investigated public
health-related issues. Examining the relationship between health and high crime
environments, reviewing public health approach towards understanding youth
v iolence, and evaluating public health strategies for public safety have all been ses-
sion themes (Block et al. 2006; Loeber 2007; Taxman and Gallagher 2009). Other
ASC sessions have also included topics on the health of prison inmates, the role of
mental health in criminal justice policy and practice, and crime as a public health
problem (DeLone and DeLone 2008; Willison and Debus 2009; Zaitzow and Lanier
2010).
On the other hand, the APHA conferences have had presentations that also examine
criminal justice-related concerns. For instance, the APHA annual meetings have
had sessions about programs that tackle gun violence as well as those that focus on
collaborations between mental health professionals and law enforcement (Broussard
and Compton 2010; Webster et al. 2010). Another APHA session entitled ‘Must
prisons remain dangerous to the public’s health?’ was co-sponsored by the World
Health Organization and offered presentations on the physical and mental health of
incarcerated populations, as well as how different countries have different approaches
towards incarceration in terms of promoting public safety (Boyington 2007; Gatherer
2007; Moller 2007; Weinstein 2007). The phrase ‘co-occurring disorders’, which is
often used to describe populations who have both public health related concerns
(e.g. symptoms of mental health disorders; substance use; sexually transmitted
infections), as well as criminal justice ones (e.g. violence; crime), have also been
commonly found within APHA presentations (Mino et al. 2008; St. De Lore et al.
2009; Zahnd et al. 2009).
Following these traditions, we convened a symposium at the 2009 annual meet-
ing of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in San Francisco, CA. The
symposium was entitled ‘Crime, HIV, and Health: Intersections of Criminal Justice
and Public Health Concerns’. We personally invited researchers whose work high-
lighted these intersections and advertised a call for papers in the newsletters of two
ASA sections relevant to the topics: Crime, Law and Deviance, and Alcohol,
Tobacco and Other Drugs. All ASA members were also invited to the audience at
the symposium. The symposium consisted of 13 presentations from approximately
25 different researchers from across the USA, many of whom had previously
received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National
Institute of Justice (NIJ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or
other Federal agencies.
The impetus for this edited collection grew out of our mutual interests in sociology,
criminology, epidemiology and public health, and our research experiences with high-
risk youth and risk of exposure to HIV/HCV, especially among marginalized popula-
tions, including substance users, ethnic minorities, women, gang members, and the
homeless. Under examined crossovers between the fi elds of criminal justice and pub-
lic health addressed in the symposium was a subsequent focal area for this collection.
Each presenter was invited to submit an original paper based on his or her presentation
for inclusion in an edited monograph. Additionally, several researchers whose work
we felt re fl ected the themes of the book were also invited to participate. The book
contains 14 chapters written by a total of 52 authors re fl ecting four different themes.
Introduction ix
Our introductory chapter begins by examining two areas common to criminal
justice and public health: substance use and violence; and vulnerable populations and
incarceration. From here, we brie fl y outline four general themes on the intersections
of criminal justice and public health explored by the chapters in this book: the health
of incarcerated populations; health consequences of crime and risk behaviors; crime,
space and health; and public health interventions with criminal justice populations.
Despite this format, reading the book from beginning to end is not necessary. Rather,
each chapter is complete in itself, and the book is designed to allow the reader to jump
in at any point.
For the initial theme, three chapters examine the health of incarcerated popula-
tions. In the fi rst, researchers from Northwestern University present fi ndings from
the Northwest Juvenile Project, a longitudinal study of health and risk behaviors
among incarcerated juveniles. In this chapter, the authors report on risky sexual
behaviors and exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.
In the second chapter, researchers from the Integrated Substance Abuse Program at the
University of California, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Department of
Public Health, Sexually Transmitted Disease Program offer data from a pilot program
aimed at increasing screening for STIs among incarcerated female delinquents upon
intake and reducing subsequent risky sexual behaviors upon release. In the third
chapter, colleagues from Howard University report on disparities in mental health
diagnosis and treatment among African Americans and the implications of this for
the correctional populations. Here, the authors highlight how various mental health
illnesses often go undetected among African Americans, which contributes to their
over-representation in jails and prisons.
The second theme is on the health consequences of risk behaviors in the lives of
high-risk individuals. The fi rst chapter in this part is based on data from a National
Science Foundation project on the use of crystal methamphetamine and other
co-occurring risk behaviors. Here, the authors e xamine the extent that certain persona-
lity traits mediate the relationship between methamphetamine users and their par-
ticipation in violence and risky sexual behaviors. Next, several authors from National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded studies provide data gathered over a 20-year
period on substance use, violence, and risky sexual behaviors among gang-identi fie d
youth in three major cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Antonio. Overall,
evidence is presented to indicate gang youths’ high levels of exposure to negative
physical and mental health outcomes. From here, colleagues at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, present data on the increases in drug-related mortality in the
USA. One interesting fi nding of this study was that ex-prisoners constituted a
signi fi cant proportion of these deaths, suggesting that the immediate period upon
release is a time when such individuals are particularly vulnerable. Next, data on the
overlap of arrest, victimization, substance use, and risky sexual behaviors among
young adults in the Miami club scene are presented. An important result that our
colleague from the Nova Southeastern University indicates is how many of these
behaviors and outcomes appeared to congregate among particular individuals.
The third theme of the book is entitled Crime, Space and Health. The fi rst chapter
by researchers at the Paci fi c Institute for Research and Evaluation examines the