Epidemiological Criminology: Linking Public Health, Criminology and Justice Policy

Criminal Justice policies and practice evolve with changing administrative and legal mandates. Furthermore, policy is shaped in response to different historical contingencies, whether cultural, political, or economic in nature. Though justice policies are rarely examined from a public health perspective, the relevance of such a perspective is becoming increasingly apparent. Increasing rates of HIV/AIDS, aging prison populations and substance abuse are just a few of the health issues that are straining and subsequently altering justice policy and practice in the United States. By necessity, public health is becoming highly important as a funding source, for technical expertise, for staffing and for policy-making within American criminal justice institutions. Numerous research reports and funding trends have also documented this health mandated change. This paper highlights two of the more relevant issues: drug use and HIV/AIDS. Explicit theoretical and methodological linkages between the two disciplines regarding these issues are presented.