Exploring Student Attitudes to Suicide in the Community and in Prison

While there is increased research exploring public opinions of suicide, investigating attitudes towards prison suicide is scarce. Increased understanding is pertinent due to public opinions influencing, legitimising, or inhibiting suicide, prevention efforts and policy decisions. Method: The current study recruited five female and five male students, five were white British and five black or ethnic minority to explore attitudes to community and prison suicide. Semi-structured interviews were utilised, and the qualitative analysis was conducted using thematic analysis. Results: There were four main findings: students were more punitive towards suicide in prison than the community; attitudes towards suicidal offenders changed significantly depending on the offence committed but not on the offender’s age or gender; participants supported prison support and prevention measures; there were no participant gender differences in the acceptance of suicide. Conclusions: While participants supported prison provision and prevention efforts for suicide, they were still particularly more punitive towards offenders compared with members of the public, showing increased negativity towards sexual offenders (SOs), specifically child sexual offenders (CSOs). There is therefore a need to not exacerbate the stigma associated with SOs to increase efforts of support and encouragement towards rehabilitation and reintegration to prevent re-offending and inspire them to become contributing members of society, in turn assisting in the reduction of suicidal tendencies within these groups.