Murderers or thieves at risk? Offence-related suicide rates in adolescent and adult prison populations

Prisoners have a higher risk of suicide compared to non-incarcerated individuals. One aim of suicide prevention for prisoners is to identify risk factors in order to put stronger support mechanisms in place for the more vulnerable detainees. This study investigates the suicide risk (SR) in offence-related sub-populations in a representative German sample and differentiates between SR for adolescent and adult prisoners.

Conducting a national study with data from public German records on the entire prison population from 2000 to 2016 and suicide numbers in German prisons in the same period, SR was calculated for the total male prison population as well as for both subgroups, adolescent and adult male prisoners.

In the study period, male prisoners spent 959.584 life years (LY) in German criminal detention. Among those, 524 prisoners died of suicide. SR was higher for detainees imprisoned for an offence resulting in extensive physical harm for another person, e.g. homicide (suicide rate = 134,8 suicides per 100.000 LY; OR = 2,47; CI95%: 1,98-3,08), bodily injury (suicide rate = 87,3; OR = 1,60; CI95%: 1,29-1,99), and sexual offences (suicide rate = 84,2; OR = 1,54; CI95%: 1,18-2,01) compared with the SR of the total prison population (suicide rate = 54.6). Age differences between offence-related SR were found for theft, with adolescents (suicide rate = 69,3; OR = 1,25; CI95%: 0,85-1,84) showing higher SR than adults (suicide rate = 38,2; OR = 0,7; CI95%: 0,54-0,92).

The index offence of detainees is associated with SR and age-related differences exist. Suicide prevention in prisons should take both into account to determine populations at risk.