Abstract
This study aimed to characterize lifetime criminal involvement among homeless people with mental illness in Canada (N = 1,682). A latent profile analysis yielded five classes. Most participants fell within the Fewer Needs (75.5%) group, characterized by less complex psychosocial histories and few criminal charges. Participants with Extensive Criminogenic Needs (5.0%) and Acute and Extensive Criminogenic Needs (5.0%) had more charges for justice administration, violent, and mischief/public order offenses and were more likely to have been charged before their first homelessness episode. Participants with Needs Associated with Homelessness (10.6%) and Needs Associated with Drugs (3.8%) were similar, although the former had the longest history of homelessness and the latter had more drug-related charges and were most likely to have drug use disorder. This typology, which sheds light on the cumulative needs associated with different patterns of lifetime criminal involvement among homeless people with mental illness, could guide prevention initiatives and intervention strategies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
