Mental health locus of origin, locus of control of behaviour, and stigma towards criminal justice-involved persons with mental health problems

Attribution theory provides a pathway by which stigma may develop, following a process involving causal attribution, responsibility inference, and emotional response. While this pathway has been used to explain the development of mental health stigma, little research exists on the intersecting stigmas of criminal justice-involvement and mental health problems. The current study uses a representative UK sample (n = 532) and a cross-sectional design to examine beliefs about mental health locus of origin, locus of control of behaviour, and attitudes towards criminal justice-involved persons with mental health problems. Using path analysis, an interactionist view of mental health origins, consistent with psychosocial explanations, was found to predict less stigma towards this group. Stigmatic domains linked with fear and compassion were found to mediate the relationships between mental health locus of origin and social distance, with compassion indicating a reduced desire for social distance. These results support previous work on the attribution–stigma pathway and offer insights into potential stigma-reducing factors towards this group.