Trauma, PTSD and incarceration history in a nationally representative sample of African Americans

Research with inmates and veterans has demonstrated a strong link between being a victim and being a perpetrator of crime, especially in the context of chronic victimization. Trauma exposure and PTSD in impoverished inner-city populations across the U.S. is alarmingly high. Strong associations between civilian PTSD, trauma and incarceration histories have been found in convenience samples. However, knowledge of this relationship in representative community samples is limited.

Methods: Using data from the restricted part of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), this presentation investigates the connection between type/severity of trauma and involvement with the criminal justice system in a nationally representative sample of African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans in the U.S. The study specifically explores how type of trauma moderates the relationship between exposure to trauma, developing PTSD, likelihood of arrest and length of incarceration across both genders.

Findings: In the included sample of 5,189 respondents (36.9% male), 79.7% reported one or more traumatic events; 31.9% reported more than three events. The lifetime prevalence for PTSD was 8.0%. Incarceration histories showed that 14.3 % (n=471 men; n=269 women) have been confined and 27.2% (n=864 men; n=548 women) have been arrested. As expected, preliminary results showed elevated rates of both trauma and contact with the criminal justice system in the sample. A series of ANOVAs, and logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations between types of trauma, incarceration and the moderating role of gender.