Understanding the Nature and Implications of Romantic Relationships Among Criminally Involved Individuals with Mental Illness

Abstract

This study explores the role romantic relationships play for individuals who live with significant mental illness and are involved in the criminal justice system. Life-course researchers have long hypothesized about the important influence of romantic bonds as impacting outcomes for both criminally involved men and women in varying ways. Far less attention, however, has focused on individuals with significant mental illness and criminal justice system involvement, and there is almost none that addresses criminally involved individuals with mental illness’ own perspective on these matters. The current study examines the narratives of 111 probationers with mental illness on a specialty mental health caseload to understand how romantic relationships impact their lives. Findings demonstrate the dynamic influence of mental illness on romantic relationships in conjunction with addiction, violence, and criminal justice involvement. Each is discussed with special consideration given to the gendered impact that these relationships have on this group.

Keywords:

• Romantic relationships
• mental illness
• specialty caseloads
• life-course criminology

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Maricopa County Adult Probation Department for providing the data analyzed in the current project. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department.

Notes on Contributors

Philip Mulvey is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice Sciences at Illinois State University. He earned his PhD from Arizona State University in criminology and criminal justice, and also has degrees in psychology from University of Illinois, Boston College, and Northwestern University. Prior to entering academia, he was the project manager in the Health Disparities & Public Policy Program at Northwestern University. His focal research interests revolve around the interface between mental illness and the criminal justice system, issues of social control for disenfranchised populations, and criminal justice policy.

Matthew Larson is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University whose recent work has focused on life-course criminology, romantic relationships, mental illness, and violence. His research has appeared in Criminology, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and Criminal Justice & Behavior.

Brice Terpstra is a senior research analyst for the TORCH lab in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He earned his Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Sciences from Illinois State University. His thesis project explored the attitudes and perceptions of specialty probation officers on mental health caseloads and their work with offenders with mental illness. His research interests include mental illness, policy, veterans, and disenfranchised populations.

Notes

1 Serious mental illness in the current article is defined as Axis I disorders considered in the DSM-IV-TR (e.g. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder).

2 When thinking about the implications of serious mental illness for romantic relationships, it is important to note that not all forms of mental illness will have the same impact. Serious mental illnesses are unique, and the impact that they have on people’s relationships can vary in meaningful ways from one person to the next.

3 Relationship success can be defined in a variety of ways. In this paper, we generally use this term to refer to 1) opportunities for romantic involvement and 2) the stability and prosocial characteristics of romantic relationships once they are formed.

4 Anecdotally, in interviews with SMI officers and supervisors, it was estimated that over 2000 probationers in Maricopa County at the time of the project had “mental health terms” meaning their intake assessment to probation had indicated some risk/need around previous or current mental health problems. The majority of these individuals, however, would not qualify for the SMI caseload given their lack of significant functional impairment in their daily lives.

5 Each of the 17 officers had at least two probationers on their caseload participate. As part of the availability/convenience sample all individuals on the SMI probation caseload were eligible to participate, except those who were currently in long term inpatient psychiatric care, or those who could not consent for themselves due to diminished mental capacity at the time of the interview.

6 The primary investigator spent over 100 hours observing the mental health court in Maricopa County over a 12-month span. In addition, at the completion of each qualitative interview, a case file review of probation files and public records of all 111 participants was completed. This additional field and archival research provided triangulation to assist with assurances of validity on factual information the participants discussed during their individual interviews. This subsequent data collection also provided the researchers with a deeper understanding of many of the participants’ lives through issues discussed during public proceedings at the mental health court, as well as case file reviews of the participants.

7 In a comparative analysis between the current sample and the overall caseload at the time of data collection, the samples did not significantly differ in most demographic categories other than gender as women were oversampled by design as part of the larger data collection strategy.

8 The current study was part of a larger project exploring the overall experience of SMI probationers on the Maricopa County mental health specialty caseload. Originally, 65 interviews were completed with women on the SMI caseload to learn about their pathways to the criminal justice system and how coercive and beneficent control was exerted over their lives. At the completion of that study, 46 men were interviewed from the SMI caseload to expand the project to also consider the experiences of men on the SMI caseload.

9 In a few instances, individuals were arrested and released before ever spending a night incarcerated.

10 The participants were not given a specific definition of “romantic relationship” for the confines of this project. There were multiple individuals who were in non-sexual adult relationships that identified as being in a romantic relationship. Similarly, there were a few instances where individuals were engaged in sexual relationships with others that they did not consider “romantic”. The participants were allowed to convey their own meaning to what they considered a romantic relationship in their lives in order to capture as varied of experience as possible in what they might consider a romantic relationship. That noted, almost all, if not all, participants endorsed conventional ideas of romantic relationships when they considered their own experiences.

11 One important consideration, as displayed in Table 1, is that on average, men spent more time incarcerated than women had in the sample. Part of the decreased relationship experience in comparison to women in the sample might be partially a result of less availability across time to be in romantic relationships or to find new romantic partners.