Ten Years of Research into Self-Harm in the Western Australian Prison System: Where to Next?

Authors

Gregory Dear, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Routledge

Place of Publication

Oxon, UK

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Psychology and Social Science

RAS ID

6090

Comments

Dear, G. E. (2008). Ten years of research into self-harm in the Western Australian prison system: where to next?. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law,15(3), 469-481.

Available here

Abstract

In this article the findings from a programme of research into self-harming behaviour in Western Australian adult prisons conducted since 1996 are integrated with findings from international research to construct a model to explain self-harm in prison. The critical component in the model is severe distress: the necessary ingredient for self-harming behaviour. Consequently, a critical aspect of any system to prevent self-harm in prison is to reliably detect and effectively respond to prisoners' distress. The priority for researchers is to test the model using prospective designs to permit conclusions about causative relations among factors.

DOI

10.1080/13218710802101613