@article{ref1,
title="Civil commitment law, mental health services, and US homicide rates",
journal="Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology",
year="2012",
author="Segal, Steven P.",
volume="47",
number="9",
pages="1449-1458",
abstract="PURPOSE: The study considers whether involuntary civil comment (ICC) statute provisions are associated with homicide rates. Do statutes based solely upon dangerousness criteria versus broader ICC-criteria-i.e. &quot;need for treatment,&quot; &quot;protection of health and safety,&quot; and family protection-have differential associations related to their goal of reducing the frequency of homicide? METHOD: State-level data were obtained from online data bases and key-informant surveys. Ordinary-least-squares and Poisson regression were used to evaluate the association between statute characteristics, mental health system characteristics, and 2004 Homicide Rates after controlling for firearm-control-law restrictiveness and social-economic-demographic-geographic-and-political indicators historically related to homicide rate variation. RESULTS: Poisson and OLS models, respectively, were significant: likelihood ratio χ(2) = 108.47, df = 10; p < 0.000 and Adj. R (2) = 0.72; df = 10, 25; F = 10.21; p < 0.000. Poisson results indicate that social-economic-demographic-geographic-and-political-indicators had the strongest association with state homicide rates (p < 0.000). Lower rates were associated with: broader ICC-criteria (p ≤ 0.01), fewer inpatient-bed access problems (p ≤ 0.03), and better mental health system ratings (p ≤ 0.04). OLS results indicate that social-economic-demographic-geographic-and-political indicators accounted for 25% of homicide rate variation. Broader ICC-criteria were associated with 1.42 less homicides per 100,000. Less access to psychiatric inpatient-beds and more poorly rated mental health systems were associated with increases in the homicide rates of 1.08 and 0.26 per 100,000, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: While social-economic-demographic-geographic-and-political indicators show the strongest association with homicide rate variation, the results show the importance and potentially preventive utility of broader ICC criteria, increased psychiatric inpatient-bed access, and better performing mental health systems as factors contributing to homicide rate variation.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0933-7954",
doi="10.1007/s00127-011-0450-0",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0450-0"
}