title: Further evidence of the validity of the Suicide Risk Assessment Scale for prisoners.
abstract: The Suicide Risk Assessment Scale (SRAS; nine items) is useful in correctional settings but needed further validation. First, 44 inmates originally screened as suicidal with the SRAS were evaluated by institutional psychologists according to five criteria: suicidal urgency, risk, appropriateness of referral, need for short- or long-term watch. On the whole, the SRAS was judged to be as effective as a more elaborate test. Second, 242 suicidal and non-suicidal inmates were tested with the SRAS. Their results correlated better with suicidal risk (.71) than with urgency (.50). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis even showed that the SRAS performed better than a more elaborate test in predicting risk.
authors.affiliation: University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, P.O. Box 500, Trois-Rivières, Canada, G9A 5H7. marc.daigle@uqtr.ca
authors.forename: Marc S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Daigle
authors.forename: Réal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Labelle
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Côté
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D011330:Prisons; D011336:Probability; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011792:Quebec; D012372:ROC Curve; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000092864:Suicide Prevention