Prisión y suicidio: Estudio prospectivo de 20 años en España

Aarón Argudo Palacios; Rogelio González Weiss; Omneia Sadek El Shahat; Xosé Antón Gómez Fraguela

doi:10.46661/respublica.11493

Authors

Aarón Argudo Palacios Universidad de Santiago de Compostela https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1433-5955
Rogelio González Weiss Asociación de Profesionales en Prevención y Posvención de la Conducta Suicida https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1795-8772
Omneia Sadek El Shahat Diaconía España https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0762-1516
Xosé Antón Gómez Fraguela Universidade de Santiago de Compostela https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9140-1533

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46661/respublica.11493

Keywords:

Suicide, prisions, gender, age, procedural situation

Abstract

Suicide has been established as the main cause of death in Spanish prisons. The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of suicide in the Spanish prison population with the general population, analyzing the differences according to sex, age and procedural status (convicts vs. pretrial detainees) over a 20-year period.

In order to carry out the comparative analysis between the prison and non-prison populations, it was necessary to group the data into five age ranges (18-25, 26-30, 31-40, 41-60 and over 60). This categorisation is due to the way in which the different official sources presented the information, which led to discrepancies with respect to the usual breakdowns of the Spanish population. Specifically, in the non-prison suicide records, the age groups range from 15-24, 25-29, 30-39, etc. The results reveal that the prison population has a significantly higher risk of suicide compared to the general population, with a more pronounced increase in women. In addition, men in pretrial detention show a higher risk of suicide compared to those already serving a sentence. The implications of this study highlight the need to strengthen suicide prevention policies in the prison setting, adapting interventions to the particularities of gender, age and procedural situation.

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