People with serious mental illness (SMI) are prominently and unjustly overrepresented in the criminal legal system. More than one-third—and in some studies more than two-thirds—of those with SMI have a lifetime history of arrest. For the first time, a single volume takes a deep dive into the common behaviors, contexts, and decisions that lead to misdemeanor arrests.

Contributors representing the fields of anthropology, social work, criminology, and psychiatry draw on data from a mixed-method, multisite study (Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia) to examine how people with SMI become entangled in the criminal legal system and how failure to resolve underlying issues—such as underfunded social and mental health service systems and the shortage of affordable housing—plays a role.

Divided into three distinct sections, Entangled: How People With Serious Mental Illness Get Caught in Misdemeanor Systems