Abstract
This study attempts to examine the effect of vegetation on arrests of offenders with and without serious mental illness (SMI). Data from the MacArthur mental health court study were analyzed. Objective arrest data were obtained 12–18 months pre‐ and post‐court involvement between 2005 and 2007. Vegetation data were captured by the normalized difference vegetation index, which can be regarded as a general measure of “vegetation” and linked with GeoID, obtained from the American Community Survey. We analyzed data of sociodemographic factors (e.g., age, gender), crime‐related factors (e.g., age of first arrest), and vegetation in related to the crime on 652 offenders with mental illness. Multilevel negative binomial regression revealed no significant effect of vegetation on arrests among offenders without SMI; however, for those with SMI, a significant variation in vegetation on arrests was found among all study models. Our findings suggest that vegetation is significantly associated with arrests, with a positive effect on reducing the recidivism only among offenders with SMI. Given that practice and policy almost exclusively focus on individual factors of crimes, it is important to have more considerations about how neighborhood factors affect criminal behavior, depending on SMI in order to have more comprehensive methods of crime prevention.