Screening for Serious Mental Illness among Criminal Offenders

Abstract

Resource constraints at all levels of the criminal justice system as well as the lack of a widely accepted, validated screening scale have made it difficult to screen adequately for serious mental illnesses (SMI) in offender populations. This study examined the use of the K6 scale, a recently developed and validated screening tool for SMI, using a sample of past-year arrestees. Among the main findings were that 18% of the sample screened positive for SMI. In contrast, commonly used screening questions misidentified a large proportion of arrestees with SMI. Based on these findings, we recommend the use of K6 scale to more accurately identify offenders with SMI.

Citation

Swartz, J.A. and Lurigio, A.J. (2005), "Screening for Serious Mental Illness among Criminal Offenders", Hartwell, S.W. (Ed.) The Organizational Response to Persons with Mental Illness Involved with the Criminal Justice System (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-1152(05)12007-9