Mental illness, focal concerns, and intersectionality: The relationship between types of mental illness, types of crime, and race and gender in sentencing in state courts

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between mental illness and sentencing in US state courts applying a focal concerns theory framework and incorporating intersectionality. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) modeling and data from the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), our findings support that neglecting the intersectionality of race and gender obscures important variations in the relationship between mental illness and sentence length. We also find important differences in this relationship based on the type of mental illness, with some types of mental illness associated only with longer sentences, others associated only with shorter sentences, and some with both longer and shorter sentences. When examining types of crime, we find longer sentences for individuals with mental illness only in the sentencing of violent crime, but not in sentencing of property, drug, or public order/other crimes. We use the lens of focal concerns theory to advise these findings.