Mental Illness and Violence: The Importance of Neighborhood Context (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship) (Criminal Justice Ser)

Silver argues that neighborhood social disorganization explains variation in the violent behavior of individuals with mental illnesses that is not explained by their individual-level characteristics. To test this framework he uses data from the MacArthur Foundation’s Violence Risk Assessment Study in combination with 1990 Census Summary Tape Files. Logistic regression results suggest that residence in a socially disorganized neighborhood increases the probability of violent behavior among discharged psychiatric patients, an effect that is not mediated by the availability of social supports. Implications for the further development of a multilevel theoretical perspective on violence and mental illness are discussed.