Citation

Liska AE, Markowitz FE, Whaley RB, Bellair P. Am. J. Sociol. 1999; 104(6): 1744-1775.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/210222

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a plethora of social control studies, ranging from imprisonment to psychiatric hospitalization. Unfortunately, research on each of these two forms tends to be isolated from the other, and research on the relationships between them is limited. In this article, the relationship between the mental health and criminal justice systems is examined. The relationship is modeled in terms of the casual processes that underlie it: processes that are common to both systems, and processes that underlie the effect of one system on another. Using a panel of cities, the article reveals strong cross-system effects and that racial composition strongly influences jail capacity. Through this effect, both jail and hospital admissions are influenced.