مقاله انگلیسی تاثیر جرم محلی بر سلامت روان
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Author contributors
Funding
Declaration of competing interest
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References
ABSTRACT
Background: Growing evidence indicates that the residential neighbourhood contributes to the complex aetiology of mental disorders. Although local crime and violence, key neighbourhood stressors, may be linked to mental health through direct and indirect pathways, studies are inconclusive. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthetize the evidence on the association between neighbourhood crime and individual-level mental health problems. Method: We searched 11 electronic databases, grey literature and reference lists to identify relevant studies published before September 14, 2020. Studies were included if they reported confounder-adjusted associations between objective or perceived area-level crime and anxiety, depression, psychosis or psychological distress/ internalising symptoms in non-clinical samples. Effect measures were first converted into Fisher’s z-s, pooled with three-level random-effects meta-analyses, and then transformed into Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Univariate and multivariate mixed-effects models were used to explore between-study heterogeneity. Results: We identified 63 studies reporting associations between neighbourhood crime and residents’ mental health. Pooled associations were significant for depression (r = 0.04, 95% CI 0.03–0.06), psychological distress (r = 0.04, 95% CI 0.02–0.06), anxiety (r = 0.05, 95% CI 0.01–0.10), and psychosis (r = 0.04, 95% CI 0.01–0.07). Moderator analysis for depression and psychological distress identified stronger associations with perceived crime measurement and weaker in studies adjusted for area-level deprivation. Importantly, even after accounting for study characteristics, neighbourhood crime remained significantly linked to depression and psychological distress. Findings on anxiety and psychosis were limited due to low number of included studies. Conclusions: Neighbourhood crime is an important contextual predictor of mental health with implications for prevention and policy. Area-based crime interventions targeting the determinants of crime, prevention and service allocation to high crime neighbourhoods may have public mental health benefits. Future research should investigate the causal pathways between crime exposure and mental health, identify vulnerably groups and explore policy opportunities for buffering against the detrimental effect of neighbourhood stressors.
Introduction
Mental health problems are major contributors to disability and suffering (Vos et al., 2017), affecting 30% of the global population at least once during their lifetime (Steel et al., 2014). Over and above individual and household-level factors, there is a growing understanding that social and physical features of the living environment may contribute to the complex multifactorial aetiology of mental disorders (Diez Roux, 2007; Lund et al., 2018; O’Brien et al., 2019; Richardson et al., 2015). Crime and violence in the community is a major public concern, included in the Sustainable Development Goals (Lund et al., 2018), and identified as key stressor likely mediating the impact of neighbourhood characteristics on mental ill health (Lorenc et al., 2012; Galster, 2012). Research in criminology indicates that the spatial distribution of crime events is not random. Increased crime rates are more common in disadvantaged and low-income neighbourhoods (Sampson et al., 1997), and in areas with signs of social disorganisation and low collective efficacy (i.e. social cohesion among neighbours with effective control to regulate members maintaining desired common goals) (Sampson et al., 1997). Within neighbourhoods, crime incidents are particularly concentrated around micro-geographic units, such as street segments, where criminogenic characteristics (e.g. lack of local guardianship, suitable targets) provide opportunities for offending (Jones and Pridemore, 2018).