Individuals With Mental Illnesses on Probation: The Intersection of Trauma, Race, and Gender

• Author: Ashley Givens,Andrea Murray-Lichtman,Tonya B. Van Deinse,MacKenzie Dallenbach,Mariah Cowell Mercier,Evan M. Lowder,Gary S. Cuddeback
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15570851221112926
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2022, Vol. 17(4) 494–513

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/15570851221112926

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Individuals With Mental

Illnesses on Probation: The

Intersection of Trauma, Race,

and Gender

Ashley Givens

1

, Andrea Murray-Lichtman

2

,

Tonya B. Van Deinse

2

, MacKenzie Dallenbach

1

,

Mariah Cowell Mercier

3

, Evan M. Lowder

4

, and

Gary S. Cuddeback

5

Abstract

Little research exists about PTSD and traumatic experiences among justice-involved

individuals with mental illnesses and how those experiences differ by race and gender.

We examined traumatic experiences and PTSD among 187 individuals with serious

mental illnesses on probation in the United States: 94% of participants experienced a

traumatic event, rates of PTSD were highest among Black women (p< .001), and rates

of sexual assault were highest among White women (p< .001). Justice-involved in-

dividuals with mental illnesses have complex needs and an elevated risk of PTSD and

exposure to traumatic events, which has implications for probation policy and practice.

Keywords

mental health, trauma, intersections of race/class/gender, probation, women

1

School of Social Work, School of Health Professions, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

2

School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

3

College of Social Work, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

4

Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, George Mason

University, Fairfax, VA, USA

5

School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ashley Givens, School of Social Work, School of Health Professions, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

65211, USA.

Email: givensa@umsystem.edu

Introduction

The criminal legal system in the United States currently supervises an over-

representation of individuals of color and individuals with serious mental illnesses

(i.e., depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders). Oftentimes, though,

the exploration of phenomena faced by individuals within the criminal legal system

focuses on a subset of these marginalized groups rather than assessing how belonging to

multiple marginalized groups can impact individuals under correctional supervision.

For example, the focus is on how women, generally, experience trauma or what factors

increase Black individuals’challenges in re-entering their communities. Inter-

sectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989) offers a lens with which to assess the complexity

of race, gender, behavioral health needs, and criminal legal system involvement. The

intersection of these identities necessitates a more granular investigation of trauma and

criminal legal system involvement, especially for historically marginalized groups. In

order to understand the role trauma plays in criminal legal system involvement, a

deeper understanding of the intersection of minoritized and gendered identities is

needed.

Intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989) dictates exploration of the impact multiple

identities has on one’s experiences. Here, it can be used to assess how race, gender, and

behavioral health affect experiences within the criminal legal system. A dispropor-

tionate number of people of color are in the criminal justice system (Carson, 2021;

Engstrom et al., 2017;Hartney & Vuong, 2009;Nellis, 2016), especially on probation/

parole (Hartney & Vuong, 2009;Kaeble, 2021). Black Americans make up 12.3% of

general population but 37% of those who are incarcerated (Carson, 2021) and 21% of

adults on probation (Kaeble, 2021). The rate of incarceration of Black men is six times

that of White men and Black and Hispanic women are incarcerated at rates signif‌icantly

higher than those of White women (Carson, 2021).

Black individuals are also more likely to receive jail sentences due to “personal

choice or moral failings”and lack of effort as compared to White individuals, who are

often viewed to need help from the mental health or substance use service system and

referred for treatment instead (Romain Dagenhardt, 2020, p. 504). Young, Black men

are also most likely to receive more, and more restrictive, probation conditions

(Kimchi, 2019), which leads to much higher rates of Black individuals in the criminal

legal system (Carson, 2021;Kaeble, 2021).

Moreover, disproportionality extends to those who are justice-involved and have

mental illnesses (Anderson et al., 2016;Perzichilli, 2020). A large proportion of indi-

viduals with serious and persistent mental illnesses are supervised within the criminal

legal system (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017;Fazel& Danesh, 2002;James& Glaze, 2006;

White et al., 2006). Best estimates suggest that 44% of individuals in city or county jails

have severemental illnesses and 37% of individualsin state or federal prisons have severe

mental illnesses (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017). Although estimates vary slightly, re-

searchers approximate that between 15 and 19% of individuals on probation/parolehave

mental illnesses (Crilly et al., 2009;Ditton, 1999;Van Deinse et al., 2019). Prevalence

Givens et al. 495