Risk of Arrest Among Public Mental Health Services Recipients and the General Public

Objective:This study compared arrest rates on a broad range of offenses in a cohort of public mental health service recipients and in the general population. Methods:Administrative data from a state mental health agency were merged with data capturing arrests over a 9.5-year period in a cohort of persons with severe and persistent mental illness who used public mental health services and were aged 18–54 (N=10,742). The cohort's arrest rates for eight offense categories were compared with those of the general population for persons in the same age group over the same period (N=3,318,269). The data for the cohort that received mental health services were weighted by age and gender to align the cohort's demographic characteristics with those of the general population. Results:The service use cohort members' odds of experiencing at least one arrest in any charge category were significantly higher than those of the general population (odds ratio [OR]=1.62, 95% confidence interval=1.52–1.72); odds were higher a...