RT Journal
A1 Webb RT, Qin P, Stevens H, Mortensen PB, Appleby L, Shaw J
T1 NAtional study of suicide in all people with a criminal justice history
JF Archives of General Psychiatry
JO Archives of General Psychiatry
YR 2011
FD June 6
VO 68
IS 6
SP 591
OP 599
DO 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.7
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.7
AB 
The US National Strategy for Suicide Prevention emphasizes the importance of reducing suicide rates among prisoners.1 Most published research on suicide and the criminal justice system relates to people in custody2- 3 or the postrelease period.4- 6 A national study reported a 9-fold higher risk among US jail inmates compared with the general population in the mid-1980s7 and another from England and Wales, a 5-fold higher risk among male prisoners during 1978 to 2003.8 Investigations of suicide among offenders who are not imprisoned are comparatively rare, but elevated risk in this population has also been found.9- 13 Some have suggested that community offenders could be even more vulnerable than prisoners.11 There has been speculation as to modification of which penal system risk factors might achieve the largest reduction in risk, although prison conditions may not wholly explain the excess risk seen in this population.14- 15 Alternatively, higher risk could reflect raised levels of psychopathology and social adversity in the communities served by prisons.16 The link between offending and elevated suicide risk constitutes a major public health concern if considered from this wider perspective of all people passing through the criminal justice system.