Criminalizing Homelessness: Circumstances Surrounding Criminal Trespassing and People Experiencing Homelessness

2021 ◽  
pp. 088740342110671
Author(s):  
Brie Diamond ◽  
Ronald Burns ◽  
Kendra Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Contested Spaces ◽  
Interagency Cooperation ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Case Files ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Misdemeanor Offense

Criminal trespassing (CT) is an understudied misdemeanor offense often enforced to maintain control over contested spaces and, in practice, often disproportionately used against disenfranchised populations such as the homeless and mentally ill. This study uses the CT case files of a county criminal district attorney’s office to investigate how cases involving defendants experiencing homelessness are handled compared with other defendants. Results show that homeless defendants make up a substantial portion of all CT cases, are more likely to be repeat CT defendants, and account for most jail sentences. Whereas defendants with mental health issues were often deferred for services, this avenue was not similarly extended to homeless defendants. Qualitative analyses show varied circumstances related to CT arrest for homeless and non-homeless defendants. The findings suggest various policy implications to refocus police resources and promote interagency cooperation to address the underlying causes of CT involvement by people experiencing homelessness.

Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement

2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Haney
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Supermax Prisons ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Special Mental Health

This article discusses the recent increase in the use of solitary-like confinement, especially the rise of so-called supermax prisons and the special mental health issues and challenges they pose. After briefly discussing the nature of these specialized and increasingly widespread units and the forces that have given rise to them, the article reviews some of the unique mental-health-related issues they present, including the large literature that exists on the negative psychological effects of isolation and the unusually high percentage of mentally ill prisoners who are confined there. It ends with a brief discussion of recent caselaw that addresses some of these mental health issues and suggests that the courts, though in some ways appropriately solicitous of the plight of mentally ill supermax prisoners, have overlooked some of the broader psychological problems these units create.

scholarly journals An Overview of Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Chen ◽  
Yanna Pusica ◽  
Dorsa Sohaei ◽  
Ioannis Prassas ◽  
Eleftherios Diamandis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Population ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Mental Health Effects

Since its initial outbreak in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the global community. In addition to the negative health consequences of contracting COVID-19, the implementation of strict quarantine and lockdown measures has also disrupted social networks and devastated the global economy. As a result, there is rising concern that the pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of the general population. To better understand its impact, an increasing number of studies examined the effects of the pandemic on mental health and psychosocial implications of enforced quarantine and lockdown. In this article, we aim to review and summarize the findings from a variety of studies that have explored the psychosociological effects of the pandemic and its impact on the mental well-being of the general population. We will also examine how various demographic groups, such as the elderly and youth, can be more susceptible or resilient to the pandemic’s mental health effects. We hope to provide a broader understanding of the underlying causes of mental health issues triggered by the pandemic and provide recommendations that may be employed to address mental health issues in the population over the long-term.

Work and Respect in Chennai

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Mazza
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Homeless Women ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Occupational Training ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Therapeutic Activities

In India, relatively few of those who are mentally ill live without their families. Yet some do, either because they are abandoned or because they flee. The Banyan is a non-governmental organization founded in 1993 to rescue poor, abandoned, homeless women with mental health issues. Since its inception, the Banyan has treated over two thousand persons with mental illness. They bring in women who are often too incapacitated to remember their own names, and they care for them and treat them and teach them to work. They provide food, clothing, shelter, medication, general healthcare, therapeutic activities, and occupational training–all for free. They have been able to return over a thousand of them to their natal homes. Its remarkable success arises in part from the way these families understand the problems created by illness: first and foremost as failure to work, not as an inner experience with symptoms of distressing voices. This chapter illustrates this process through the life of a woman with schizophrenia abandoned by her family.

scholarly journals Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007–2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrinka Atanasova ◽  
Nelya Koteyko ◽  
Brian Brown ◽  
Paul Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Arts Participation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
The Media ◽  
British Press

We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand (1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and (2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis, we identified frames of recovery, stigma and economy. The recovery frame, which emphasised that mental illness can be treated similarly to physical illness, positioned arts participation as a form of therapy that can complement or substitute medication. The stigma frame presented arts participation as a mechanism for challenging social conceptions that mentally ill individuals are incapable of productive work. The economy frame discussed the economic burden of mentally ill individuals and portrayed arts participation as facilitating their return to employment. Using thematic analysis, which paid attention to the representation of social actors, we found that service users were identified as the prime beneficiaries of arts initiatives, and arts participation was conceptualised as a way to bring people with mental health issues together. We discuss these findings against existing research on media representations of mental health and the concept of ‘mutual recovery’ and suggest what wider concurrent developments in the areas of mental health and the media may account for the uncovered frames and themes.

“You’re Fired,” Says the Robot

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. McClure
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
American Population ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Using Data

The rapid adoption of new technologies in the workplace, especially robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), has motivated some researchers to determine what effects such technologies may have. Few scholars, however, have examined the possibility that a large segment of the population is apprehensive about the quick pace of technological change and encroachment into modern life. Drawing from economic projections about the future of the digital economy and from literature in the sociology of technology and emotions, this article explores whether certain fears of technology exacerbate fears of unemployment and financial insecurity. Using data from Wave 2 of the Chapman Survey of American Fears ( N = 1,541), I find that there exists a sizable population of “technophobes” or those who fear robots, AI, and technology they do not understand. Technophobes are also more likely than nontechnophobes to report having anxiety-related mental health issues and to fear unemployment and financial insecurity. With advances in robotics and AI, the threat of technological unemployment is discussed as a real concern among a substantial portion of the American population.

Legitime Leiden. Die Rechtfertigung von eingeschränktem Arbeitsvermögen und betrieblichen Reintegrationsmaßnahmen am Beispiel psychisch erkrankter Beschäftigter

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-148
Author(s):  
Anna Gonon
Keyword(s):  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Work Capacity ◽  
Occupational Rehabilitation ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Occupational Reintegration ◽  
Mental Health Issues

Zusammenfassung Die neuere Forschungsliteratur betont die normativen Dimensionen der betrieblichen Wiedereingliederung. Daran anknüpfend untersucht der Artikel am Beispiel psychisch erkrankter Beschäftigter, wann und wie im Prozess der Eingliederung Rechtfertigungsbedarf entsteht und analysiert die Rechtfertigungsmuster, auf die betriebliche Akteure zurückgreifen. Als theoretischer Rahmen dient die Soziologie der Konventionen. Empirisch beruht der Artikel auf qualitativen Interviews mit Beschäftigten, Vorgesetzten, HR- und Eingliederungsverantwortlichen in drei Großunternehmen in der Schweiz. Weiterbeschäftigung und Wiedereingliederung werden vorwiegend über das kooperative Verhalten und die (weiter zu erwartende) Arbeitsleistung der Betroffenen gerechtfertigt. Aus diesen Rechtfertigungslogiken können sich zum Ziel der Rehabilitation konträre Dynamiken und Handlungszwänge ergeben. Abstract: Legitimate Distress: the Justification of Limited Work Capacity and Occupational Rehabilitation – the Case of Employees with Mental Health Issues Recent literature has stressed the normative dimensions of occupational reintegration. This article examines when and how a need for justification arises in the process of reintegration, focusing on mentally ill employees. Drawing on the sociology of conventions, justification patterns used by organizational actors are analysed. Empirically, the article is based on qualitative interviews with employees, supervisors, HR and integration managers in three large companies in Switzerland. The employees’ cooperative behaviour and their (expected) work performance are the most important criteria of justification. These logics of justification can result in dynamics and constraints that are contrary to the goal of rehabilitation.

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