University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Health Soc Behav. 2020 Sep;61(3):290-306. doi: 10.1177/0022146520936208. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
Despite increased attention to the links between the criminal justice system and health, how criminal justice contacts shape health and contribute to racial health disparities remains to be better understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 5,488) and several analytic techniques-including a quasi-treatment-control design, treatment-weighting procedures, and mediation analyses-this study examines how criminal justice contacts shape inflammatory and depressive risk and contribute to black-white health gaps. Findings revealed that incarceration is associated with increased C-reactive protein and depressive risk, particularly for individuals who experienced long durations of incarceration. Arrests are also associated with mental health, and mediation analyses showed that racial disparities in arrests and incarceration were drivers of black-white gaps in depressive symptoms. Together, this study provides new evidence of the role of the criminal justice system in shaping health and patterning black-white health gaps from adolescence through early adulthood.
尽管人们越来越关注刑事司法系统与健康之间的联系，但刑事司法接触如何影响健康并导致种族健康差距仍然有待更好地理解。本研究使用了来自青少年到成人健康全国纵向研究（N=5488）的数据和几种分析技术，包括准治疗对照设计、治疗加权程序和中介分析，研究了刑事司法接触如何塑造炎症和抑郁风险，并导致黑人和白人之间的健康差距。研究结果表明，监禁与 C 反应蛋白和抑郁风险的增加有关，特别是对于那些经历过长时间监禁的人。逮捕也与心理健康有关，中介分析表明，逮捕和监禁方面的种族差异是导致抑郁症状中黑人和白人之间差距的驱动因素。总的来说，这项研究提供了新的证据，证明了刑事司法系统在塑造健康和塑造青少年到成年早期黑人和白人之间健康差距方面的作用。
