Abstract
Prior studies of violence among individuals with mental illnesses have focused almost exclusively on individual-level characteristics. In this study, I examine whether the structural correlates of neighborhood social disorganization also explain variation in violence. I use data on 270 psychiatric patients who were treated and discharged from an acute inpatient facility combined with tract-level data from the 1990 U.S. Census. I find that living in a socially disorganized neighborhood increased the probability of violence among the sample, an effect that was not mediated by self-reported social supports. Implications for future research in the areas of violence and mental illness are discussed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1043-1074 |
Number of pages | 32 |
Journal | Criminology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2000 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Law