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Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Criminal Activity: Examining Patterns Over Time

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

This study examined whether street homelessness, sheltered homelessness, and the severity of psychological symptoms predicted non-violent and violent crime among 207 mentally ill participants who were homeless at baseline. Participants were interviewed at 9 time points over 4 years. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine whether changes in homelessness status and symptom severity predicted changes in criminal activity over time. Results indicated that homelessness both on the streets and in shelters and psychological symptom severity predicted increases in non-violent crime. Sheltered homelessness and symptom severity predicted increases in violent crime, although street homelessness did not. A separate mediational analysis with 181 participants showed that the relationship between diagnosis of a psychotic disorder and both non-violent and violent criminal activity was partially mediated through the severity of psychotic symptoms. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Certain variables only appear in analyses where a subset of participants was included. For these variables, we report figures and descriptive statistics that include only the relevant subset of participants.

  2. Although the same participants were included in the meditational analyses for both non-violent and violent crime, the analyses for non-violent crime included slightly fewer observation points (i.e., data specific to a particular person and time point) due to missing data. Therefore, we conducted the second step separately for both outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, New York University, 715 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Sean N. Fischer

  2. Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University, Peabody College #90, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203-5721, USA

    Marybeth Shinn

  3. Psychology Department, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Patrick Shrout

  4. Pathways to Housing, Inc., New York, USA

    Sam Tsemberis

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  1. Sean N. Fischer
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  2. Marybeth Shinn
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  4. Sam Tsemberis
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Correspondence to Sean N. Fischer.

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Fischer, S.N., Shinn, M., Shrout, P. et al. Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Criminal Activity: Examining Patterns Over Time. Am J Community Psychol 42, 251–265 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9210-z

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