Violence-related Traumatic Brain Injury in Justice-involved Women

Date of Award

Winter 3-25-2017

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Kim Gorgens

Second Advisor

Terri M. Davis

Third Advisor

Jennifer Gafford

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Justice-involved, Corrections, Women, Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Violence

Abstract

Study Questions: This study investigated the rates of violence-related TBI among justice-involved women compared to justice-involved men. This study also investigated whether a number of sociological vulnerabilities were associated with violence-related TBI among justice-involved women.

Method: Archival data from 409 justice-involved individuals were used in this study. Men and women were compared on the prevalence and incidence of violence-related TBI, violence-related multiple TBIs, and all multiple TBIs using Pearson Chi-Squares. Men and women were compared on the total number of TBIs and youngest age of TBI using Mann-Whitney U Tests. Women were grouped by violence-related TBI history and compared on multiple vulnerabilities such as physical health problems, mental illness, and length of incarceration. Women were then re-grouped into violence-related multiple TBI, violence-related single TBI, and non-violence-related TBI and compared on the same variables using Kruskall-Wallis one-way ANOVAs with post hoc tests.

Results: There was no significant difference between genders in prevalence or incidence of violence-related TBI. Gender was, however, significantly associated with multiple TBIs (10.330, df = 1, p = .001), and multiple violence-related TBIs (7.074, df = 1, p = .008). History of violence-related TBI was significantly associated with physical health problems (7.902, df = 1, p = .005) and length of incarceration (p = .022). There were significant differences between multiple violence-related TBIs, single violence-related TBI, and non-violence related TBI groups on length of incarceration (p = .001).

Discussion: This study revealed a higher prevalence of multiple TBIs and violence-related multiple TBIs among justice-involved women compared to justice-involved men. Violence-related TBIs were associated with more reports of physical illness and increased incarceration times. Clinicians can use this information to justify the identification of justice-involved women with these injuries so they may better tailor services to improve personal outcomes and reduce cost burdens to justice systems.

Copyright Date

3-17-2017

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Kristi C. Wall

Provenance

Received from Author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

34 pgs

File Size

332 KB

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