The Age-Graded Consequences of Justice System Involvement for Mental Health

Date01 March 2022
Published date01 March 2022
DOI10.1177/00224278211023988
Subject MatterArticles
Original Research Article
The Age-Graded
Consequences of
Justice System
Involvement for
Mental Health
Kathleen Powell
1
Abstract
Objectives: Drawing on the life course and social stress perspectives, this
paper examines age variation in the mental health consequences of justice
system involvement by assessing arrest, conviction, or incarceration as
possible age-graded stressors that amplify harm at younger ages of involve-
ment. Methods: Individual fixed effect regression models utilizing National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997) data test whether age moderates the
mental health impact of arrest, conviction, or incarceration. Follow-up
analyses for moderated associations compute a nd compare age-specif ic
relationships to identify differences in the significance and magnitude of
mental health consequences for contacts spanning late adolescence, emer-
ging adulthood, and adult hood. Results: The incarc eration-mental health
relationship is moderated by age, as significant harms to mental health are
exclusively observed following secure confinement in late adolescence (ages
16–17) and emerging adulthood (18–24), but not in adulthood (25–33). The
lack of moderation between arrest and mental health indicates a universally
1
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Kathleen Powell, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19125, USA.
Email: kmp438@drexel.edu
Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency
ªThe Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00224278211023988
journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc
2022, Vol. 59(2) 167–202
harmful experience at all ages. Conclusions: Evidence supports conceptualiz-
ing incarceration as an age-graded social stressor that is correlated with
pronounced harm to mental health during late adolescence and emerging
adulthood. Future research should identify the mechanisms of this unique
stress response following earlier incarcerations and its long-term salience
for processes of cumulative disadvantage.
Keywords
collateralconsequences,mentalhealth issues, life-course theory,
developmental theories, criminological theory
Within the now robust collateral consequences literature, varied types of
system contact have been correlated with declines to mental health, includ-
ing police stops (Geller et al. 2014; M cFarland, Geller, and McFarland
2019), arrests (Fernandes 2020; Sugie and Turney 2017), and incarceration
(Bac´ ak,Andersen, and Schnittker 2019; Boen 2020; Porter 2019; Porter and
DeMarco 2019; Schnittker, Massoglia, and Uggen 2012). This literature
base elucidates the average impact of justice system involvement for mental
health, finding support for conceptualizing justice contacts as social stres-
sors that provoke adverse health responses (Link et al. 1997; Pearlin 1999).
However, many questions remain regarding heterogeneity in these general
associations (e.g., Kirk and Wakefield 2018).
This paper explores one important but understudied potential source of
variation: the timing of system involvement. While some scholarship sug-
gests the importance of earlier entry into prison for mental health (Bac´ak
et al. 2019; Barnert et al. 2018; Boen 2020), less is known about the relative
difference in the impact of justice system contacts—carceral and non-
carceral alike—across age of experience. This gap in the literature materi-
alizes despite theoretical insights from the life course perspective and the
social stress process that collectively envision an age-graded relationship in
mental health (and other) consequences. The timing principle suggests that
justice system involvement earlie r in the life course will correlate wit h
heightened immediate and prolonged negative consequences (e.g., Avison
2010; Elder 1998; Kurlychek and Johnson 2019; Sampson and Laub 1995).
For mental health outcomes, this amplified harm may be especially likely
for justice-involved adolescents and emerging adults for whom social stress
from the justice system likely compounds with stressors inherent in these
transitional developmental phases (e.g., Altschuler and Brash 2004;
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 59(2)
168
Shanahan 2000). However, research has yet to thoroughly ex amine this
possibility.
In this analysis, I advance understanding of the mental health conse-
quences of justice system involvement by investigating how variation in
the timing of justice involvement may generate variation in observed out-
comes. It is guided by two research questions: (1) are associations between
various forms of justice system contact (arrest, conviction, and incarcera-
tion) and mental health variant across age of contact?, and, if so, (2) which
ages of justice system contact are most impactful for mental health? The
analytic design invokes the logic of moderation analysis (e.g., Baron and
Kenny 1986) to explore age variation using data from the National Long-
itudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort and fixed effect regression models. I
find evidence of an age-graded relationship between incarceration and
mental health where negative impacts are concentrated for incarceration
at ages 16 through 22 (and marginally at 23) during late adolescence and
emerging adulthood, and do not materialize for incarceration at 24 or older
throughout adulthood. However, age does not moderate the arrest-mental
health relationship, as being arrested is correlated with harm at all examined
ages. I begin by overviewing studies on the mental health consequences of
justice involvement, then motivate this analysis by drawing on integrated
insights from the life course perspective and social stress process.
Reviewing the Mental Health Consequences of Justice
System Involvement
An overview of prior research indicates that varied types of involvement
with the justice system are, on average, deleterious to individuals’ mental
health. Outside of prisons, being stopped by the police in adolescence and
young adulthood has been associated with heightened anxiety, worsened
emotional wellbeing, higher stress levels, and increased symptoms of post-
traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress (Bac´ ak and Nowotny
2020; Bac´ak and Apel 2019; Del Toro et al. 2019; Geller et al. 2014; Geller,
Fagan, and Tyler 2017; Jackson et al. 2019; McFarland et al. 2019; Turney
2020). Arrests in adulthood have also been correlated with worsened mental
health (Fernandes 2020; Sugie and Turney 2017). Formal convictions are
inconsistently related to mental health, with some evidence failing to find
an independently significant association following a juvenile adjudication
(Craig et al. 2018) or adult conviction (Sugie and Turney 2017). Piquero
and colleagues (2010) found that convictions during adolescence were
associated with an increased likelihood of life failure, a composite measure
169
Powell

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