Crime and public health: a complex relationship

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The links between health outcomes and crime – including individual criminal activity, recidivism, exposure to violence, and victimization – have important implications for public policy. This special issue of Justice Quarterly features research from within criminology, and aims to initiate discussion of the health-related outcomes of crime, and ultimately to build collaboration between the fields of criminology and public health.

  •  In their study of the effects of criminal offending on health, Alex R. Piquero and colleagues analyse the risk of early death among 411 South London males in their late 50s. They conclude that high-rate chronic offenders have a higher risk of early death than non-offenders.
  • John Stogner and colleagues use data on 14,738 adolescents to analyse the reciprocal nature of the relationship between health and violence. The study indicates that minor health problems have delayed effects on violence, and that involvement in violence also negatively affects future health.
  • The evolving link between public health and criminology is explored by Brandon C. Welsh et al., with a particular focus on serious youth violence. The study looks at both research and practice, and at how these contribute to improved collaborations between criminology and public health, and to public-health-influenced programmes that have an impact on youth violence.
  • David S. Kirk and Margaret Hardy use a longitudinal data set on Chicago adolescents to investigate the effects of exposure to violence on youth mental health and aggression. They find that such exposure has an acute and enduring effect on aggression, but no effect on anxiety-depression.
  • “Is violence bad for your health?” ask Jennifer M. Reignle and colleagues. They analyse the relationship between violent offending and chronic diseases among a longitudinal sample of young adults. Variation across offender typologies is found to significantly predict chronic disease in early adulthood, with the risk being the most pronounced among individuals who demonstrate violence continuity.
  • Leana A. Bouffard and Maria D.H. Koeppel examine the relationship between early experiences of victimization and long-term physical and mental health outcomes. Their results indicate that individuals who are victimized before the age of 12 are more susceptible to a number of physical and mental health issues. The public health and policy implications are considered.
  • The relationship between recidivism and the availability of health care – including the effect of neighbourhood disadvantage – is investigated by Danielle Wallace and Andrew V. Papachristos. Their results confirm the importance of maintaining health care facilities in disadvantaged districts in order to moderate negative neighbourhood-level outcomes.
  • The spatial and temporal movement of homicide in Newark, New Jersey, is the focus of research by April M. Zeoli et al. They analyse 2,366 homicide incidents dating from January 1982 to September 2008 to compare the diffusion pattern with that of an infectious disease. The results reveal that firearm and gang homicides have spread southward and westward from the centre of the city over the course of two decades, a finding that has a number of theoretical and practical implications.

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About Taylor & Francis Group

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Taylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life.  As one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, and Technology and Medicine.

From our network of offices in Oxford, New York, Philadelphia, Boca Raton, Boston, Melbourne, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Stockholm, New Delhi and Johannesburg, Taylor & Francis staff provide local expertise and support to our editors, societies and authors and tailored, efficient customer service to our library colleagues.

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