Self-injurious practices in prison are higher than average. A study reveals that women are the most affected. As in the general population.
Self-harm is a scourge that also hits prisons. A study by two British researchers, published on December 15 in The Lancet, reveals that more than 26,000 incidents of self-injury were reported between 2004 and 2009. As the suicide rate decreases, this practice appears to persist. The researchers established the risk factors and compared them with the general prison population.
Thirty times more than the UK average
Self-injurious acts observed during the follow-up period vary between 20,000 and 25,000 per year. The inmates were ten times more likely than the men to practice them. They are on average 20 to 24% to self-injure against 5 to 6% of imprisoned men. It is also thirty times more than the British average. What Dr Serena Fazel, co-author of the study, remembers is the frequency of incidents: “The repetition rates were striking; if an inmate self-harmed, she did it eight times a month, and there were 102 women (and two men) who did it over 100 times a year. “
In France, according toAssociation of Health Professionals Working in Prison (ADSEP), there are 32 self-aggressive acts per 1,000 inmates. This is sixteen times more than in the free population. Women are once again overrepresented compared to men. The proportion is much lower compared to the British data, but these data must be put into perspective: no official statistics exist to identify cases of self-injury.
Scratches, cuts, self-strangulation …
Two methods of self-harm emerge from the English study: as in the general population, the use of cuts and / or scratches is the most common in both sexes. Where men favor risky practices with ingestible products (poisoning, overdoses, ingestion of inappropriate objects), women more often practice self-restriction.
The typical profile of an inmate who self-injures is more of a woman. But in general, the patient is young (under 20), white, awaiting conviction or sentenced to life. Women who have committed a violent crime are also at greater risk of self-harm than others.
In France, the profile varies slightly. Inmates who self-injure are on average 28.4 years old and French. ADSEP notes that 10% of self-injurious acts take place in the first week, and 20% in the first month of detention. Caroline Girard, socio-demographer and prison health specialist, defines on the ADSEP website the main causes of this practice. In most cases, it is the manifestation of a depressive state. But detainees can also act for a judicial purpose or “to draw attention” to his conditions of imprisonment.
A particularly feminine practice
Women represent only 5% of the prison population, but half of self-harsh incidents. Can we say that, in general, self-harm is a particularly female problem? In any case, this is epidemiological data: women are statistically more at risk of self-harm than men. But, as recently explained to why actor Dr Xavier Pommereau, psychiatrist at the Abadie center in Bordeaux (Gironde), male self-harm is generally more serious than in women.
The problem must be taken seriously, according to the report’s authors: Self-harm is a major risk factor for suicide in prison. This is particularly the case with male inmates, where the annual suicide rate among self-injuring men is four times that of the general prison population. The report stresses the need to change methods of suicide prevention, paying particular attention to inmates who self-injure, “especially if they do so repeatedly.” “
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