Mental Health, Policing, and Criminal Justice

• These notes cover mental health, policing, and criminal justice.

Mental Health Foundations

• Any Mental Illness (AMI) encompasses a wide spectrum of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders varying in severity.
• Serious Mental Illness (SMI) refers to severe disorders that significantly impair a person's ability to function in daily life.
• Deinstitutionalization shifted care from large psychiatric hospitals to community-based facilities starting in the 1960s.
• The 1963 Community Mental Health Act, signed by President John F. Kennedy, significantly pushed deinstitutionalization.
• The goal of deinstitutionalization was to integrate individuals with mental illnesses into society for better care.
• Approximately 600,000 people were institutionalized prior to the deinstitutionalization movement.
• Critics argue deinstitutionalization was poorly planned and underfunded, leading to homelessness and incarceration for many.

Police Response to Mental Health Crises

• Police-based Specialized Police Response: Specialized units within the police force respond to mental health crises.
• Police-based Specialized Mental Health Response: Police officers collaborate with mental health professionals during crises.
• Mental Health-based Specialized Mental Health Response: Mental health professionals lead crisis responses, with police support when needed.
• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) was developed in Memphis, TN, after a 1987 incident involving a mentally ill man killed by police.
• CIT aims to reduce fatalities during police encounters with individuals who have mental health or substance abuse disorders.
• CIT also aims to divert individuals from the criminal justice system and into appropriate mental health treatment facilities.
• CIT involves a 40-hour training program in de-escalation techniques and understanding mental illness symptoms.
• Training & coding protocols for 911 personnel are key CIT components.
• Mental health treatment facilities are encouraged to accept individuals directly from the scene in the CIT model.
• There is limited evidence CIT is effective in reducing fatalities during police encounters.
• CIT may reduce the use of force by officers and improve their perception of handling mentally ill individuals.
• Officers report greater satisfaction and confidence in handling mental health crises after CIT training.
• CIT has been associated with increased public aversion to psychiatric services in some cases.

Officer Mental Health & Wellness

• Police officers have high exposure to violence, trauma, and death.
• Police officers experience mental health issues, including PTSD, at higher rates than the general population.
• 20% of police officers suffer from PTSD compared to 7% of the general population.
• General Strain Theory (GST) explains how repeated negative work experiences intensify smaller stressors in an officer's life.
• Strain includes the inability to achieve goals, removal of positive stimuli, and presence of noxious stimuli.
• Organizational factors like lack of peer support and inadequate training contribute to mental health problems in police officers.
• Strong peer support and camaraderie among officers can reduce the impact of PTSD symptoms.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs after experiencing or witnessing a threatening event and can result in an inability to function.
• Symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing trauma, avoidance, and emotional numbness.
• PTSD can develop through direct exposure, witnessing events, learning about trauma involving loved ones, or repeated exposure to details of traumatic events.
• Hypervigilance is a heightened state of awareness and watchfulness after experiencing violence.
• Hypervigilance is linked to anxiety, irritability, difficulty relaxing, and suspicion of others.
• It is common in police officers and is linked to psychological outcomes like anxiety, depression, and relationship problems.

Bias in Policing

• Benchmark Test: Compares police contacts across racial/demographic groups to identify disproportionate targeting.
• Outcome (Hit-Rate) Test: Analyzes the rate at which police find contraband during searches across demographic groups.
• Risk Set Identification: Researchers must correctly identify the group at risk of being stopped or searched.
• Denominator Choice: Accurately defining the total number of people who could have been targeted is important to avoid skewed results.
• Simpson's Paradox: Trends in aggregate data may disappear or reverse when data is disaggregated by subgroups.

Police Funding & Reform Approaches

• Funding options exist to minimize negative criminal justice system impact.
• Reallocating funds from police budgets to social services, mental health care, or community programs are examples.
• Public safety involves addressing the root causes of crime, such as poverty and mental illness.
• Challenges of immediately reducing police budgets include reduced emergency response resources and potential crime increases.
• Economic factors like local government funding and tax revenues influence police budgets.
• Abolitionist "Defund" Perspective: Advocates dismantling policing systems and reallocating resources to community-based services.
• Upstream "Defund" Perspective: Focuses on diverting police funding to social services to prevent crime.
• Evidence-Based Policing: Uses research and data to inform policing practices for effectiveness.
• "Dishonest" Law Enforcement: Society's misconception that police alone can prevent crime.
• "Honest" Law Enforcement: Police focus on crime prevention, while social services address societal issues that lead to crime.