Brad A. Myrstol

The Jailing of America’s Homeless: Evaluating the Rabble Management Thesis

The authors of this article test hypotheses derived from Irwin’s rabble management thesis. The analysis uses data from 47,592 interviews conducted with jailed adults in 30 U.S. cities as part of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program. Clearly, homeless persons are overrepresented among those arrested and booked into local jails. Bivariate analysis support a fundamental assertion of the rabble management thesis: Homeless are jailed not because of their dangerousness but rather their offensiveness. Homeless arrestees are distinct from their domiciled counterparts in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, previous experiences with alcohol and drug treatment, mental health, criminal justice systems, and alcohol and drug use histories. In addition, homeless are less likely than domiciled arrestees to be jailed for felonies and violent crimes but more likely to be charged with maintenance and property crimes. Logistic regression models confirm these differences, even after other factors are controlled. A discussion of the policy implications of these findings follows.

Does Context Matter? Examining the Mental Health Among Homeless People

While much research has focused on the impact community has on health and wellbeing of domiciled populations, limited research has explored the same for homeless people. Using multivariate models, this research explores what factors are related to depressive symptomatology among homeless people living in two distinctly different communities. Results suggest that context matters, but not for every circumstance examined in these models. While some variables exhibit a consistent relationship with depressive symptoms, the role of social capital is noted as particularly important to lowering symptomatology, yet its impact differs significantly by location.

Risk Factors and the Duration of Homelessness among Drug-Using Arrestees: Evidence from 30 American Counties

We examined risk factors influencing length of homelessness among a sample of drug-using adults booked into jails in 30 American counties during the years 2002–2003. Interviews were conducted with 30,634 arrestees. Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) explored the impact of arrestees’ drug use histories, prior experiences with alcohol and drug treatment, prior mental health experiences, and previous criminal justice experiences on membership in one of three housing stability categories. MLR results showed that, in comparison to the sporadic homeless, the persistent homeless were a demographically distinct group with significant social and human capital deficits and distinct health risk profiles, including drug use behavior, mental health status, and criminal offending. We argue that jails are well positioned to serve as a focal point for the delivery of public health and psychiatric services to homeless persons.