Title: Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition - ScienceDirect
Headings: Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition
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Journal of Criminal Justice
Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition ☆
Abstract
Introduction
Current study
Theoretical framework
Deprivation model
Importation model
Combined models
Data and methods
Data
Analytic Strategy
Independent variables
Results
Description of the sample
Bivariate results
Results of the negative binomial regression model
Discussion and conclusions
Acknowledgements
References

Content: The deprivation perspective holds that prison suicide is a product of the restrictive prison milieu. Loss of freedom, isolation, and conditions of the prison increase the likelihood of suicide in prison. The importation model suggests that the demographic, social, and psychological characteristics of the inmates explain suicide in prison. From this perspective, individual level predictors of suicide operate the same both in prison and the general community. Within this theoretical framework, this research addressed two general questions: ( 1) To what extent do prison conditions promote/restrict suicide? ( 2) In what ways do the characteristics of inmates predict suicide in prison? This study hypothesized that prisons characterized by greater levels of deprivation would be more likely to report suicides compared to prisons with lower levels of deprivation. Greater levels of deprivation would include prisons that were more “cut off from society” (i.e., rural versus urban location, and participation in work/education release programs), more “total” or secure (i.e., lower versus higher security levels), that lacked goods and services including rehabilitative programs, those that were overcrowded, and those that reported higher levels of violence (i.e., inmate assaults). This study also hypothesized that general risk factors for suicide such as demographics (gender, age, and race) and mental health would also increase suicide in prison.