Prior Criminal Justice Involvement of Persons Experiencing Violent Deaths in Illinois

Introduction

The United States has a much higher homicide and firearm-related death than comparable countries in the world.^[1] According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Vital Statistics System, more than 19,500 people were victims of homicide and almost 47,000 people died by suicide in 2017 (the most current data available). Violent death is a major public health and criminal justice concern as violence leads to harmful long-term outcomes in communities.^[2] Research has found that community members, especially youth, exposed to violence outside the home may suffer poorer mental health, experience more justice involvement, and engage in substance misuse and risky sexual behavior.^[3] In addition, violent and unexpected death can lead to significant stress and additional burden or family members and friends.^[4]

Methodology

In order to examine criminal histories and violent deaths of adults in Illinois, researchers used three data sources. We examined county-level data from the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS), which is part of the National Violent Death Reporting System operated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IVDRS is currently housed at Northwestern University’s Buehler Centre for Health Policy and Economics, Feinberg School of Medicine. IVDRS combines data from death certificates, coroner/medical examiner, law enforcement, toxicology, and autopsy reports. IVDRS collects data on all violent deaths, including those resulting from homicide, suicide, legal intervention, unintentional firearm injury, and those for which the causes are undetermined in participating Illinois counties. In 2017, IVDRS collected data in 16 Illinois counties (Cook County, including the City of Chicago, DuPage, Effingham, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, Madison, McHenry, McLean, Peoria, Sangamon, St. Clair, Tazewell, Will, and Winnebago), accounting for 81% of all Illinois violent deaths. The second data source was Criminal History Record Information (CHRI), which includes arrest and charge data entered by law enforcement. Finally, researchers obtained Illinois Department of Correction (IDOC) records for those remanded upon conviction. Researchers matched those who died violently in Illinois from the IVDRS in 2015 and 2016 to the two criminal justice data sets.

Study Limitations

There were some limitations to the study in the completeness of data which affects generalizability. First, as noted, the IVDRS data did not have full state represenation (16 of 102 counties). Second, the majority of violent death cases in the sample (69.4%) occurred in Cook County. Third, only one rural county was represented in the sample and southern Illinois counties were lacking in representation. Finally, the study did not include juvenile data, court dispositions, or jail data.

Findings

Violent Deaths

In the years 2015 and 2016, participating Illinois counties submitted data on 3,175 violent deaths to the IVDRS. These data indicated the total number of suicides in Illinois fell below the national average; homicides occurred at an above-average rate during those.^[5] Of these, 2,205, or 70%, of the reported violent deaths occurred in Cook County. Cook County saw a fairly even distribution of suicides (51%) and homicides (49%) during that period. A total of 1,842 of the deceased individuals had prior arrest records and 530 had been incarcerated at least once. A total of 90% of those who had been incarcerated died by homicide. Victims of a violent death with at least one prior arrest were most often male (65%), unmarried (66%), and a person of color (76%). Those with prior arrests were an average of 11 years younger (mean age 35 years old) at the time of death than those with no prior arrests (mean age 41 years old). A majority of those with prior arrests who suffered violent deaths died via firearm (68%) (n=1,252).

Victims of Homicide

In the years 2015 and 2016, 1,553 homicides were recorded, with 1,406 (91%) classified as a single victim homicide. Homicide victims were overwhelmingly male (89%) and unmarried (86%). Homicide victims were an average age of 32 years old and the majority were persons of color. The vast majority (86%) of the homicide decedents’ fatal injuries were caused by firearms. Nearly all gang-related violent deaths were the result of homicide (271 of 272 victims).

Homicide and Criminal History

A total of 1,196 homicide victims (77%) had been arrested at least once, with an average of 14 prior arrests (Figure 1). Prior domestic violence, stalking, violent felony, and weapons arrests were common among victims of homicide. The 115 individuals on parole in this sample lived an average of 2.7 years between their discharge and death. Ninety-four percent of those sampled who died on parole (n=108) were victims of homicide and 70% of those under a court disposition (sentence) at the time of death died via homicide.

Figure 1

Prior Criminal History by Violent Death Type

Data source: 2015-2016 Illinois Criminal History Record Information and 2015-16 Illinois Violent Death Reporting System data

Victims of Suicide

In the years 2015 and 2016, 1,622 suicides were recorded in IVDRS by participating counties. Those who died via suicide were an average of 48 years old at the time of death and nearly 90% were White. The majority of suicides (67%) were caused by firearms and asphyxiation (hanging, strangulation, suffocation). Of those with a diagnosed mental disorder, over one-third died via suicide, along with 10% of individuals with a diagnosed drug problem. Roughly 20% of all victims were legally intoxicated at the time of their deaths (328 suicide victims, 288 homicide victims).

Suicide and Criminal History

A total of 646 suicide victims (40%) had been arrested at least once, with an average of 5 arrests per victim (Figure 1). A total of 3% of suicide victims had prior incarcerations. Seventy percent (123 of 175) of those with a prior DUI arrest died via suicide. Those on parole lived an average of 5.4 years between their discharge from incarceration and suicide victimization, twice as long as victims of homicide.

Implications for Policy and Practice

Violence Prevention Programming

Many homicide and suicide victims in the IVDRS sample had prior criminal justice involvement indicating potential intervention opportunities for criminal justice practitioners to reduce violent death. Chicago’s CeaseFire Program (now Cure Violence), which contracted with community organizations in neighborhoods with high levels of firearm violence to offer street outreach to high-risk youth, showed positive results in its pilot city and in other high violence cities, including Baltimore.^[6] In addition, increasing collective efficacy through community programming and neighborhood cohesion efforts have been an effective prevention tool in violent communities.^[7] These efforts include relationship building, bystander education, and restorative justice tactics in communities. Strengthened community bonds can decrease interpersonal violence, while offering a preventative measure for those with suicidal thoughts related to isolation and a lack of relationship with individuals who may intervene. Overall, hospital and street-based community interventions have shown promise in violence prevention.^[8]

On an individual level, low self-worth has been shown to be a significant predictor of future violence. This is especially true among young people exposed to community violence.^[9] As younger populations are more likely to engage in violent actions, earlier and more focused attention paid to self-worth can help mitigate future interpersonal violent acts and self-harming. This study’s findings suggest that by reducing an individual’s risk for committing a violent act and subsequent arrest and incarceration, there may be a decrease in victimization leading to a violent death.

This study’s findings support prior research that has found many in the criminal justice system have experienced, or will experience, violence or violent death. Therefore, the criminal justice system should incorporate trauma-informed strategies and be prepared to treat under-addressed trauma, secondary victimization, and vicarious trauma. Adams, et al. (2017) examined a number of effective trauma-informed practices for correctional-based settings that included addressing coping skills, controlling PTSD symptoms when displayed, building self-empowerment skills, offering prolonged exposure therapy, and teaching de-sensitization tactics.^[10] For those not in the correctional system, these practices can also be deployed in the community setting for those deemed at-risk based on current and past criminal offending.

Suicide Prevention

While suicide is considered a violent death, it is distinct from homicide or other forms of interpersonal violence due as it is the result of self-harm. This study found suicides slightly outnumbered the homicides during the two-year period of examination, at 1,622 and 1,533, respectively. Forty percent of suicide victims over this two-year period had prior criminal histories. Mental health assessments could be made a standard part of the sentencing process for certain offenders with charges that correlate to higher rates of future suicide, such as DUI. Risk assessment protocols used to screen prisoners at intake could be employed to detect mental health problems and suicide risk.^[11] This would allow early detection of, and treatment for, self-harm patterns or tendencies. In addition, decreasing youth bullying, promoting positive social interactions, reducing isolation, and facilitating family contact are practices shown to mitigate suicide attempts.^[12] Those on probation or parole have been shown to benefit from the availability of, and investment in, mental health services, as well as working with specialized supervision officers with smaller caseloads.^[13] Overall, a continuity of care for those receiving it, along with continued risk assessment among those with criminal histories can reduce the likelihood of suicide among this group.^[14]

Racial Disparities in Violent Death

Overall, race of the deceased was the most disparate between the two victim types of homicide and suicide. Particularly notable was that 80% of justice-involved victims of homicide were non-White. Given these results, violence prevention efforts should focus heavily on non-White communities. Community mobilization, at-risk youth outreach, and conflict mediation are all neighborhood and community-level intervention and prevention efforts that have shown promise in multiple communities around the country experiencing violent victimization^[15] Efforts that encompass these tactics but also seek to address a culture that normalizes violence, as well as communities with high concentrations of justice-involved individuals, can also prove useful.^[16]

Similarly, White individuals overwhelmingly comprised the victims of suicide who had a prior criminal history (85%). This, along with the connection between suicide and previous DUI arrests (70% of DUI arrestees died via suicide) merits attention when it comes to providing necessary preventative services to those who at risk for suicide. Suicide awareness campaigns could target those with alcohol-related arrests. Mandatory mental health counseling for repeat alcohol-related offenders also could prove beneficial.

Directions for Future Research

This study offered an example of how public health and criminal justice data sources can be linked to gain a nuanced understanding of the societal problem of violent deaths and inform on prevention and outreach initiatives. Additional research can build on this effort, as well as other previous efforts. Many studies have reported on the benefits of linking coroner/medical examiner reports with police reports for violent deaths research.^[17] Often praised, is the ability of these reports to confirm or refute data that has been redundantly collected or to fill in omitted details or gaps in the reporting of death circumstance.

The IVDRS should be used as a reference point for any intervention or death prevention initiative. Death event details and other personal information could provide the basis for an evidence-based practice to mitigate deaths. We found heighted risk for suidice for those with DUI arrests. Risky drinking behaviors, including DUI, have been studied in connection to bipolar disorder, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.^[18] Therefore, suicidal risk assessment based in part on DUI arrests could help uncover heighted risk of suicide. We also found weapons charges or arrests for violent acts as a potential precursor of homicide victimization, which has been found in prior studies.^[19]

Conclusion

In summary, homicide victims were much more likely to have prior arrest and conviction histories compared to victims of suicide. Several of the death event characteristics, such as having drug or alcohol problems at the time of death, as well as notable prior offenses (particularly violent offenses), when applicable, were associated with violent death victims. In addition, non-White individuals with criminal histories were more likely to die via homicide. Further investigation is needed on violent death and criminal justice involvement with a focus on other populations. A more complete understanding of violent death and justice involvement is needed to help identify at-risk populations. This will aid in the development of policies, practices, and interventions to prevent violent deaths. Lastly, greater county participation in the IVDRS will boost statewide applicability of the findings, to form more widespread and effective violent death mitigation strategies.