Prior Arrest, Substance Use, Mental Disorder, and Intent-Specific Firearm Injury

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Forensic Science

Background:

• Substance use, mental disorders, and arrest histories are associated with increased firearm injury risk.
• Understanding how these factors differ by the intent of firearm injury is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the associations between substance use, mental disorders, and arrest histories with different intents of firearm injury (assault-related, self-inflicted, unintentional, legal intervention).
• To inform the development of intent-specific firearm injury prevention strategies.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study analyzing 2-year diagnosis and arrest histories of firearm injury cases (2017-2018) against controls with unintentional motor vehicle collision injuries.
• Utilized linked fatal and nonfatal firearm and motor vehicle collision injury records (Seattle, 2010-2014) with statewide hospitalization and arrest data.
• Employed multinomial logistic regression to compare odds of prior arrest, substance use, and mental disorder diagnoses, adjusting for demographic factors.

Main Results:

• Unintentional and self-inflicted firearm injury cases showed no significant difference in arrest history compared to controls.
• Legal intervention firearm injury cases exhibited similarities to assault-related cases in arrest history and self-inflicted cases in hospitalization history.
• Legal intervention cases had significantly higher odds of prior felony arrest and diagnoses of alcohol, cannabis, depression/anxiety, psychosis, and conduct disorder.

Conclusions:

• Distinct patterns of prior substance use, mental disorder diagnoses, and arrest histories characterize individuals with intent-specific firearm injuries.
• Many firearm injuries may stem from repeated encounters with systems that fail to provide adequate long-term support during crises.