Social Networks of People in Contact With the Criminal Justice System in the Community, and Their Influence on Help-Seeking for Mental Health and Substance Use Problems, 2023-2025

Connell, Catriona (2026). Social Networks of People in Contact With the Criminal Justice System in the Community, and Their Influence on Help-Seeking for Mental Health and Substance Use Problems, 2023-2025. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-858261

People in contact with the criminal justice system are more likely to have substance use (drugs and alcohol) and mental health problems than the general population. Yet, they face barriers to accessing support. This contributes to poor quality of life, high emergency care use, and, ultimately, elevated rates of substance related deaths and suicide.

To design effective solutions, it is vital to understand why justice-involved people do/do not access substance use and/or mental health (SU/MH) support. One crucial step is help-seeking.

Current models do not fully consider the relational and community influences in context, which may differ in this population compared to others. Consequently, interventions may be under-optimised.
Addressing this knowledge gap will bring a new perspective to policy and practice, contributing to shifting focus away from individualised solutions and towards innovative relational and community level approaches

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an emerging methodology for studying the relational and community contexts that form individuals' social networks and influence behaviour. It is yet to be fully leveraged with people in contact with the criminal justice system in community contexts. This project applies mixed methods SNA, collecting network data from people in contact with the criminal justice system in the community in Europe for the first time.

Aim: To identify how social networks influence help-seeking for SU/MH among people in contact with the criminal justice system in two community contexts in Scotland. This knowledge will be used to 1) develop recommendations for contextually-tailored relational and community level policy and practice responses; and 2) to document procedures in using mixed methods SNA with this population.

Objectives:
1. To apply theories of social capital to examine how help-seeking for SU/MH is influenced by attitudes, behaviours and network features among justice-involved people in Scotland.
2. To address substantial gaps in knowledge concerning the influence of social networks, embedded in local contexts, on help-seeking for SU/MH among justice-involved people.
3. To involve stakeholders (end users), people with lived/living experience of justice involvement and those who support them, throughout the research to produce impactful, evidence-informed recommendations for policy and practice that address contextual-tailoring and relational and community level influences.
4. To demonstrate the utility, and provide methodological documentation on procedures, of mixed methods SNA for studying influences on behaviour among justice-involved people in community contexts. This will inform and provide practical guidance for future SNA studies with under-served and under-researched groups.

Applications/benefits: The project will make an important contribution to knowledge, policy and practice in two ESRC priority areas: mental health, and innovation in health and social care. Recommendations can be applied in policy and practice to increase access to SU/MH services among justice-involved people. This benefits the individual by improving wellbeing, and reducing need for emergency care, SU/MH related crime and deaths. It benefits those who care about a justice-involved person, their community, and society, by reducing SU/MH related social and economic costs. The knowledge generated will inform those working with justice-involved people, whilst methodological learning will increase successful SNA research on sensitive topics with under-researched groups. The project is a first step in a body of work focused on improving health and social outcomes for justice-involved people.

Data description (abstract)

Background: Mental health and substance use problems are prevalent among people in contact with the criminal justice system. This population are more likely to die by suicide or from substance use related causes than the general population. Accessing support to reduce these serious adverse outcomes is vital, which requires people to seek help. Help-seeking is influenced by individual, contextual and relational factors, the latter operating within and across social networks but poorly understood in this population.

Aim: To understand the influences on mental health and substance use-related help-seeking among people in contact with the criminal justice system in the community

Study design: Mixed methods social network analysis

Data collected: The study included 50 participants in contact with the criminal justice system in the community in two local authority areas, and 460 social network members.

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected at interview facilitated by Network Canvas software (intuitive and engaging computer mediated data collection software with touchscreen capability). Full interview protocol is available.

Participant data includes: demographic, health and criminal justice-related variables; Likert ratings of perceived usefulness of different sources of support; Likert ratings of perceived societal stigma; members of their social network (below); qualitative accounts of help-seeking collected throughout the interview

Social network member data includes: demographic, health and criminal justice-related variables; relationship to participant; participants perceptions of their attitudes towards help-seeking; closeness, respect.

Key findings: It is feasible to use mixed-methods social network analysis, with data collection facilitated by computer software, with people in contact with the criminal justice system in the community to explore highly stigmatised conditions. Manuscripts reporting the findings are under peer review (Dec 25).

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