Health Criminology
My research in health criminology explores how justice system involvement affects long-term health and well-being, particularly among youth. While traditional criminology often focuses on crime and recidivism, this work examines broader outcomes—such as mental health, disability, and life-course functioning—to understand the deeper consequences of justice contact.
Drawing on data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a large longitudinal study of justice-involved youth, I investigate how factors like gang membership, system contact, and family background shape mental health over time. This research centers not only on gang-involved individuals but on the broader population of youth affected by incarceration and structural disadvantage.
One line of inquiry examines the relationship between mental health and patterns of offending. While trauma and poverty are known to contribute to both, my work highlights how these dynamics unfold differently across time and by gender. I find that mood disorders and offending are closely linked across the life course, but that early-life experiences—like maltreatment and prior mental health struggles—play a stronger role in shaping long-term outcomes than later life events.
Another study applies the stress process framework to gang membership. I conceptualize gang involvement as a primary stressor that produces secondary stressors—such as victimization, substance abuse, and frequent police contact—that compound mental health risks. Using longitudinal models, I show that gang disengagement significantly improves mental health and functioning. Former gang members experience fewer clinical diagnoses, better psychological well-being, and reduced substance use, even after accounting for other factors.
I also explore how family context impacts mental health. In one study, I analyze how early parental or sibling confinement—through incarceration or psychiatric hospitalization—shapes mental health outcomes among system-involved youth. The findings reveal that family confinement creates lasting emotional strain and adds complexity to the relationship between justice involvement and psychological health.
