Differentiating Nuisance from Felony Offenses among Homeless Substance Abusers in a V.A. Medical Center

Abstract

This study investigated the self-reported criminal histories of 188 homeless persons participating in a Veterans' Affairs Medical Center program for substance abusers. Forty percent had been hospitalized for a psychiatric illness prior to the study and 45 percent were classified as comorbid (i.e., diagnoses of substance abuse and other psychiatric problems). The purpose of the study was to: (a) find out what proportion of these homeless veterans reported committing felonies, (b) investigate what factors discriminated between non-offenders, nuisance offenders, and felons, and (c) discuss some rehabilitation implications of the findings.

Contrary to generalizations in the literature that the majority of homeless persons commit only nuisance offenses, this study found that 77 individuals, or 41 percent of the sample, reported felony offenses. This was a greater proportion than the 27 percent who reported being involved in nuisance offenses. The discriminators considered in this study allow approximately 80 percent of the cases to be correctly classified using discriminant analysis. Implications of these findings for rehabilitation were discussed.

Keywords:

• Homeless veterans
• self-reported nuisance and felony offenses
• V.A. Medical Center program for substance abuse