First, prior work has shown that individuals with mental health issues possibly experienced difficulty in reestablishing family ties upon release. For that reason, researchers included a binary variable indicating that the respondent self-reported that he or she had any form of mental health condition (21.6% ) Next, researchers accounted for the primary type of conviction. Researchers created four variables representing four possible categories of convictions: property, violent, drug and alcohol, and other. Property crimes encompassed burglary, theft, car theft, and fraud or forgery. Violent offenses included homicide, rape, robbery, assault, other sex offense, and weapons offense. Drug and alcohol offenses included drug dealing, drug possession, and DWI or DUI. Other offense included prostitution or other offenses not listed. As drug and alcohol offenses were the most commonly reported offense (52.2%), researchers used this variable as the contrast and included the other three variables in the regression model. To conclude, researchers accounted for prior incarcerations and prior convictions as they possibly influenced family relationships upon release. Individuals were asked to report the total number of prior prison or state jail terms they had served, measured as a frequency. This variable had a mean of 1.49 and a range of 0 to 19. The variable measuring the total number of prior convictions had a mean of 4.37, with a SD of 4.70, and a range of 0 to
First, prior work has shown that individuals with mental health issues possibly experienced difficulty in reestablishing family ties upon release. For that reason, researchers included a binary variable indicating that the respondent self-reported that he or she had any form of mental health condition (21.6% ) Next, researchers accounted for the primary type of conviction. Researchers created four variables representing four possible categories of convictions: property, violent, drug and alcohol, and other. Property crimes encompassed burglary, theft, car theft, and fraud or forgery. Violent offenses included homicide, rape, robbery, assault, other sex offense, and weapons offense. Drug and alcohol offenses included drug dealing, drug possession, and DWI or DUI. Other offense included prostitution or other offenses not listed. As drug and alcohol offenses were the most commonly reported offense (52.2%), researchers used this variable as the contrast and included the other three variables in the regression model. To conclude, researchers accounted for prior incarcerations and prior convictions as they possibly influenced family relationships upon release. Individuals were asked to report the total number of prior prison or state jail terms they had served, measured as a frequency. This variable had a mean of 1.49 and a range of 0 to 19. The variable measuring the total number of prior convictions had a mean of 4.37, with a SD of 4.70, and a range of 0 to