| The United States held an estimated 2.2 million prisoners in state and federal custody at the end of 2017 (Bureau of Justice, 2017). Criminology research has made a concerted effort to assess factors that contribute to crime and incarceration, such as psychosocial risk factors, genetics, and cognitive functioning (Marsh & Martinovich, 2006; Sampson & Groves, 1989; Wasserman, 2001). Indeed, cognitive impairments and flawed decision-making processes have been observed among the incarcerated compared with the general population (Meijers, Harte, Jonker, & Meynen, 2015), with new research suggesting significant individual differences between incarcerated individuals as well (Hancock, Tapscott, & Hoaken, 2010). For example, specific domains of executive functioning, such as inhibition, idea-formation, and cognitive flexibility, have been found to predict both frequency and type of crime (Hancock et al., 2010). Both alcohol and illicit substance have been shown to cause impairments in cognitive functioning, including but not limited to inhibition and cognitive flexibility (Simon, Dean, Cordova, Monterosso, & London, 2010; Wong, Brower, Nigg, & Zucker, 2010). The purpose of this study was to assess the associations between drug and alcohol use, cognitive functioning, and type of crime among a sample of 250 incarcerated men and women from two state jails in Northwestern U.S. Analyses revealed several significant, positive main effects of neurocognitive functioning and crime as well substance use and criminal behavior. Additionally, a full, negative mediation model was revealed, where neurocognitive functioning mediated the relationship between alcohol use and frequency of criminal behavior. Implications of the results on prevention and treatment programs for the incarcerated were discussed.
Key Words: alcohol use, drug use, neuropsychology, criminal behavior, incarceration |