NCJ Number
117752
Date Published
1989
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This document describes the data-collection procedure and presents the codebook for variables in a study that explored the relationship between crime and mental disorder among jail inmates.
Abstract
The sample was composed of 617 inmates who had served time in a county jail during 1972. Psychiatric diagnosis history for inmates and patients with psychiatric contacts that spanned 18 years (1960-1977) was available along with each subject's crime record and sentencing history. Variables included demographic characteristics, type of offenses for which sentenced, and number of arrests. Also included were psychiatric-contact information on date of contact, diagnosis, type of service given, date of treatment termination, and reason for termination. The data format is card image, and the file structure is hierarchical. Eighty is the record length. The report section on data collection discusses history of the data, data sources, and the "re-collection" of the data. The latter involved a re-examination of the original list of inmate names to determine whether any inmates who appeared to be different individuals were the same; it also involved name matching again with the Register. Following comments on psychiatric data, the codebook is presented. It contains the column numbers and code numbers for the variables in each record.