Study Documents Child Health Harms of Criminal Justice Experiences
Post Date: July 31, 2024 | Publish Date:
From 2009–2020, approximately two-thirds of behavioral health care and nearly a quarter of all hospital inpatient days were attributed to the 2.2% of youth with probable personal or familial justice system involvement, according to new research led by experts at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s.
The study, published May 30, 2024, in Academic Pediatrics, was featured in a Washington Post news article dated July 28, 2024. Related coverage also appeared on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition, WLWT, and KCBS radio, San Francisco.
“Despite a lot of youth and families affected by incarceration, gaps remain in understanding its prevalence and consequences. There are numerous reasons for this, some include a lack of provider awareness, lack of curriculum in provider training, lack of funding for this research and lack of routine sensitive screening for exposure,” says lead author Samantha Boch, PhD, RN, in a UC news release. Boch is an assistant professor at the UC College of Nursing and an affiliate faculty member at Cincinnati Children’s James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence.
The research involved analyzing electronic medical records of more than 1.74 million unique patients who visited Cincinnati Children’s. The study involved three co-authors from Cincinnati Children’s: Judith Dexheimer, PhD, Robert Kahn, MD, MPH, and Sarah Beal, PhD.
