Cao Michael, Esposito Michael, Lee Hedwig
Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2025;12. doi: 10.1007/s40471-025-00358-6. Epub 2025 Jan 25.
A growing body of research has now identified the criminal legal system as a major social determinant of population health and health disparities in the United States. The current review provides a description of the U.S. criminal legal landscape, briefly summarizes recent research findings, and identifies new and needed directions for research.
Building on prior research first identifying direct contact with the prison system as a social determinant of health, recent research provides evidence of elevated risks for physical and mental morbidity and mortality among those with direct or indirect contact with the criminal legal system. This research has been expanded to include community supervision and contact with police as important drivers of health.While this evidence base has grown, our understanding of the role of the criminal legal system in population health has remained limited for several reasons: (1) prison and jail incarceration remain the primary forms of contact examined despite the existence of other relevant forms of carceral contact and control; (2) the longitudinal health consequences of contact with the criminal legal system have largely gone undocumented; (3) the majority of the research is descriptive and does not employ causal modeling approaches; and (4) relatedly, the mechanisms that link criminal legal system contact with health are not adequately measured.
The criminal legal system has emerged as a significant social determinant of health. While advances have been made in documenting the direct and indirect consequences of contact for population health and health disparities, more work is needed to better ascertain how and why this contact matters.
越来越多的研究现已将刑事司法系统确定为美国人口健康和健康差距的主要社会决定因素。本综述描述了美国刑事司法的概况，简要总结了近期的研究结果，并确定了新的和必要的研究方向。
在先前研究首次确定与监狱系统的直接接触为健康的社会决定因素的基础上，近期研究提供了证据，表明与刑事司法系统有直接或间接接触的人群中，身体和精神疾病及死亡风险升高。这项研究已扩展到包括社区监管和与警察的接触，这些都是健康的重要驱动因素。虽然这一证据基础有所扩大，但由于以下几个原因，我们对刑事司法系统在人口健康中的作用的理解仍然有限：（1）尽管存在其他相关的监禁接触和控制形式，但监狱和拘留所监禁仍然是所研究的主要接触形式；（2）与刑事司法系统接触的长期健康后果在很大程度上没有记录；（3）大多数研究是描述性的，没有采用因果建模方法；（4）相关地，将刑事司法系统接触与健康联系起来的机制没有得到充分衡量。
刑事司法系统已成为健康的一个重要社会决定因素。虽然在记录接触对人口健康和健康差距的直接和间接后果方面取得了进展，但仍需要更多工作来更好地确定这种接触如何以及为何重要。
