Population Characteristics in Justice Health Research Based on PubMed Abstracts From 1963 to 2023: Text Mining Study.

Area of Science:

• Justice health research
• Epidemiological criminology
• Public health and justice systems intersection

Background:

• Epidemiological criminology, or justice health research, examines the intersection of public health and justice systems.
• Reflecting on research outputs is crucial for focused and equitable efforts, addressing existing knowledge gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze population characteristics within a large corpus of published justice health research.
• To identify research gaps and biases in the field of epidemiological criminology.

Main Methods:

• A text mining approach was employed on 34,481 PubMed abstracts (1963-2023).
• Identified four key population characteristics: sex, age, offender type, and nationality.
• Method achieved 94.3% microprecision and 89.9% micro-F1-score.

Main Results:

• 49.4% of abstracts lacked population characteristic mentions; only 1.3% reported all four.
• Research on female-only populations increased significantly since 1990, surpassing male-only studies by 2023.
• Offenders with mental illness were the most studied group, with research increasing since 1990; Nordic countries led in research relative to incarcerated populations.

Conclusions:

• Despite females comprising 5% of incarcerated individuals, research on them has increased, suggesting male prisoners are underrepresented.
• Focus on youth (<18 years) in research reflects increased youth involvement in the justice system.
• Justice health research inadequately describes investigated populations, indicating a need for improved reporting guidelines and participant diversity.