title: Contribution of imitative suicide to the suicide rate in prisons.
abstract: Suicide rates in prisons are high. Our aim was to investigate the contribution of imitative suicide to the prison suicide rate. We used Knox tests for space-time clustering in a case register of natural and self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales and model simulations to estimate the effect size. We found significant space-time clustering among 657 self-inflicted deaths in 90 prisons over 10 years but no space-time clustering among 430 deaths from natural causes in 87 prisons over this period. Model simulations with an imitation rate of 5.8% (CI 1%-11%) reproduced the observed space-time clustering.
authors.affiliation: Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust. n.mckenzie@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McKenzie
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keane
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D013405:Suicide / Q000639:trends*; D014852:Wales