The Association of Traumatic Brain Injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and criminal recidivism

Background The purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to determine whether TBI or PTSD is associated with an increase in general or violent criminal recidivism among a representative sample of released prisoners. In-person interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of individuals incarcerated with the South Carolina Department of Corrections approximately 90 days prior to the prisoners’ releases. In addition to a variety of items and scales, respondents were screened for TBI and were asked whether they had received a current diagnosis of PTSD. Data were merged with arrest data that provided measures of past criminal involvement and indicators of post-release recidivism (arrest). Arrests were coded as “general” for any arrest charge and “violent” for any violent offense charge. Results Survival analyses indicate that neither TBI nor PTSD predicts time to general recidivism. PTSD ( p < 0.01) and age at first arrest ( p < 0.01) are significant predictors for violent recidivism and TBI is non-significant at p = 0.09. Results from the negative binomial models indicate that TBI ( p < 0.05) and PTSD ( p < 0.05) are significantly associated with more post-release violent arrests, but not general arrests. Conclusions TBI and PTSD were found to predict violent offending but not general criminal behavior. These findings demonstrate the need for prison officials to identify individuals with a history of TBI and PTSD and to develop appropriate interventions that could be provided during incarceration to reduce the post-release likelihood of violence.