Huque Sarah I, Helman Rebecca, Anderson Joe, Chandler Amy
The University of Edinburgh, UK.
Criminol Crim Justice. 2024 May 6:17488958241252954. doi: 10.1177/17488958241252954.
Rates of suicides are on the rise in Scottish prisons. Fatal Accident and Sudden Deaths Inquiries (FAIs) carried out by sheriffs following these deaths provide a valuable source of knowledge regarding how the criminal justice system understands and responds to incarcerated people's suicides. Informed by literature in critical suicide studies and narrative criminology, we conducted an abductive, narrative qualitative analysis of 37 FAI reports of incarcerated people's suicides published between 2016 and 2021, in Scotland. We argue that the FAIs explicitly individualise incarcerated people's suicides, deploying explanatory narratives of (1) mental illness, (2) social history and (3) problematic substance use, while (4) simultaneously emphasising and undermining incarcerated people's testimony and agency. By conceptualising suicide as paradoxically 'unforeseeable' and 'inevitable', these narratives shift blame onto the individual while absolving the prison system. Our analysis contributes towards understanding of how institutional procedures are implicated in social scripts and practices around suicide in Scottish prisons.
苏格兰监狱的自杀率正在上升。治安官在这些死亡事件发生后进行的致命事故和猝死调查（FAIs），为了解刑事司法系统如何理解和应对被监禁者的自杀行为提供了宝贵的知识来源。基于批判性自杀研究和叙事犯罪学的文献，我们对2016年至2021年间在苏格兰发表的37份被监禁者自杀的FAI报告进行了溯因性的叙事定性分析。我们认为，FAIs明确将被监禁者的自杀行为个体化，采用了关于（1）精神疾病、（2）社会历史和（3）物质使用问题的解释性叙事，而（4）同时强调并削弱了被监禁者的证词和能动性。通过将自杀概念化为自相矛盾的“不可预见”和“不可避免”，这些叙事将责任推给个人，同时免除了监狱系统的责任。我们的分析有助于理解制度程序如何与苏格兰监狱中围绕自杀的社会脚本和实践相互关联。
