Interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization and suicidal ideation in adult offenders

Suicide rates are elevated among criminal offenders and the furthermost predictor of suicide in this population is recent suicidal ideation, conferring approximately 15-fold risk, indicating the need for the examination of risk factors for suicidal ideation to inform prevention efforts. The present study aims to examine the associations between past-year victimization and perpetration of interpersonal violence and current suicidal ideation after rigorous adjustment of psychiatric symptoms. 266 adult offenders ages 18 to 62 (M = 33.7, SD = 11.0) were recruited from a pretrial supervision program. Participants were screened for current psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation using the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire along with items assessing physical violence perpetration and victimization in close relationships in the past year. Of the sample, 14.7% (N=39) reported current suicidal ideation, 62.0% (N=165) reported past-year interpersonal physical violence victimization, and 40.2% (N=107) reported perpetration. Physical violence victimization was significantly associated with suicidal ideation, OR (95% CI) = 3.29 (1.39, 7.79), and this relationship remained significant after controlling for psychiatric symptoms. Perpetration of intimate partner violence in the past year was significantly associated with suicidal ideation, OR (95% CI) = 2.16 (1.08, 4.31), but this relationship became non-significant after controlling for psychiatric symptoms. Data suggest that interpersonal violence victimization may promote suicidal ideation even after accounting for psychiatric symptoms among pretrial respondents, suggesting that victimization should be a target of suicide prevention efforts, although prospective data will be needed to confirm this idea.