Sentenced to Struggle? How Policy Barriers Impact the Mental Health of People with Criminal Records & Their Children

Abstract

Nearly one third of all US adults have some form of a criminal record, placing them and their families at heightened risk for poor mental health. In addition to mental health challenges, people with criminal records face substantial barriers to accessing employment, public benefits, public housing, and other aspects of daily life. Many of these barriers are legally mandated by policies known as the collateral consequences of criminal conviction. Despite the well-established link between criminal history and poor mental health and the abundant literature on these policy barriers, prior research has not investigated the role that collateral consequence policies play in shaping the mental health of this population. Using linked data from large social science surveys and state policy databases, I investigate the association between living in a state with more severe collateral consequence policies and mental health among (1) parents with criminal records, (2) adolescents whose fathers have criminal records, and (3) adults with criminal records. Contrary to my primary hypothesis, I do not find evidence linking overall collateral consequence policy severity to poor mental health among adults with criminal records or among their adolescent children. However, I find weak evidence that policies within specific domains—including access to criminal records, drivers’ license privileges, and employment—may be associated with worse mental health. Additionally, subgroup analyses show that living in states with high barriers may be detrimental for mental health among non-Hispanic Black people and women with criminal records specifically. One interpretation of these findings is that the mental health consequences of actual interactions with the criminal legal system (e.g., arrests, incarcerations) are too ingrained to be modified by subsequent downstream policies. Thus, efforts to improve mental health among families impacted by criminal records should focus upstream on reducing initial criminal legal system contact.