The issue of suicide in prisons is vaguely seen in the discussion of suicide. The topics that are most favored on suicide are suicide related to teenagers, the prevention methods of suicide, why people commit suicide and so on. Rarely is a topic on suicide in prisons seen. The journal used in this paper is Suicide in Prisoners: A Systematic Review of Risk Factors (2008) by Fazel Seena, Cartwright Julia, Norman-Nott Arabella, and Hawton Keith. In this paper we will be discussing about the research findings of the risk factors of suicide in prisoners presented by the mentioned scholars of the journal.
A concept is a mental construct that represents some part of the world in a simplified form. Sociologists use concepts to explain various aspects of life, may it be the society, race, or, in this case, suicide in prisoners. In this paper there were major factors, which can be considered to be the concepts, put into consideration during the 34 studies carried out in 12 countries comprising of 4780 suicide cases. These factors are stated below:
1. Demographic factors. These include male gender (specifically), race/ethnicity, and being married.
2. Criminological factors. These include occupation of a single cell, being in remand or a detainee and length of sentence.
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Before any research can be conducted, it has to have hypothetical expectations which indicate a connection between two or more variables that are to be measured during the research. This journal 's hypothesis statements are mainly two: "Some factors associated with suicide in prison differ from those associated with suicide in the general population" (Fazel, Cartwright, Norman-Nott, & Hawton, 2008). A second implication is that “there appear to be association between suicide in prisoners and potentially modifiable institutional and clinical risk factors" (2008). These hypotheses facilitate the type of research to be done.
In the above paragraph, there was mention of the term 'variables '. This can be easily explained as "concepts whose value changes from case to case" (Macionis, 2008). There are a number of various variables that have been mentioned but focus will be placed on three main variables, which are:
1. Gender.
2. Race/