Crime and mental disorder, 1972
By: principal investigator, Dean Harper
Series: ICPSR -- 9088; ICPSR (Series) -- 9088
Publisher: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor
Published: 1985
Place of publication: Ann Arbor, Mich
Language: und
Format: [computer file] /
Subjects: Prisoners; Mentally ill; Crime; Mental illness
Description: The purpose of this data collection was to explore the relationship between crime and mental disorder among jail inmates. Three sample groups were studied: jail inmates who had psychiatric contacts, jail inmates who did not have psychiatric contacts, and a control group of psychiatric patients who were not in jail. Psychiatric diagnosis history for inmates and patients with psychiatric contacts spanning 18 years (1960-1977) is available along with each subject's crime record and sentencing history. Variables include demographic characteristics, type of offenses sentenced, and number of arrests. Also included are psychiatric contact information including date of contact, diagnosis, type of service given, date of treatment termination, and reason for termination.
Notes: Holding archive: Criminal Justice Archive and Information Network.

ICPSR data class: Class IV.

Chronological coverage: 1972. Data collected: 1978, 1985.

County jail inmate intake logs and probation files, and a county psychiatric case register.

Survey data.

United States.

National Institute of Justice. OJP-85-M-431.

Card image data format. The file has a variable number of records per case because it is hierarchically structured at two levels: (1) the individual level and (2) the psychiatric contact level. For each individual there are at least two 80-column records of data. For each prisoner with psychiatric contacts and for each control group patient, there are one or more additional 80-column records, each representing a separate entry in the Psychiatric Case Register. At the least, a case would have 58 variables describing it, at most, 1,103. For reasons of confidentiality, all references that would identify the geographic location of this study have been blanked in the documentation and blanked or recoded in the data.

Codebook available.

Part number: 1 ; file structure: hierarchical ; case count: inap. ; variable count: inap. ; LRECL: 80 ; records per case: inap.

The sample is composed of 617 prisoners who served time in a county jail during 1972. Among these individuals, 386 had psychiatric contacts either before or after their imprisonment (i.e., between 1960 and 1977) and 231 did not. A control group of 386 psychiatric patients who had not served jail time during 1972 was also selected from the lists of the Psychiatric Case Register. These patients were matched to jail inmates with the psychiatric contacts on the following characteristics: year of first psychiatric contact, census tract of first contact, birth year, gender, and race.

Universe: Prisoners (some having had psychiatric contact, others not) who served time in a county jail in 1972.

Harper, D. Crime and mental disorder. Unpublished final report submitted to the National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC, 1986.