Self-reported offending and drug use after prison release: The pernicious role of stress during reentry

• NCJ Number: 310905
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 99 Dated: July-August 2025
• Author(s): Chantal Fahmy
• Date Published: May 2025
• Grant Number(s): 2014-MU-CX-0111
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Gangs on the Street, Gangs in Prison: Their Nature, Interrelationship, Control, and Re-Entry

Abstract

Diverse research demonstrates that unmanageable stressors are relentless on the body and brain, especially among individuals reentering society post-incarceration. Research has begun to examine how non-criminological factors are implicated in pathways leading to crime and deviance. However, the existing body of knowledge lacks specificity regarding the biopsychosocial constructs related to offending and drug use during reentry. The study evaluates the confounding nature of perceived stress on offending and drug use during the months after prison release, in light of extant literature's established effects of mental health on crime.

(Publisher abstract provided.)