In England and Wales, women in prison make up a minority of the total custodial population yet acts of self-harm are around five times more common among incarcerated women. Policymakers have introduced suicide prevention programmes in prisons ( HM Prison Service, 2001 ) and, while there has been a multiagency effort to improve how acts of self-harm are documented across prisons, the accounts of why women in prison self-harm is yet to be fully addressed. This chapter will explore the motivations associated with self-harm for imprisoned women and what we can
Introduction Women who end up in prison are among the most powerless and disadvantaged in our society, largely due to traumatic life experiences such as sexual and physical abuse, mental and physical ill health, racism and discrimination, underpinned by poverty and inequality. ( INQUEST, 2019 ) The dominant discourses surrounding self-harm and death in women’s prisons, disseminated through an interlinking, deeply patriarchal, network of state, media, liberal reform groups and academic power structures, have socially constructed a particular ‘truth
), psychosis ( Sin et al, 2021 ) and eating disorders ( Yim et al, 2021 ). Additional challenges for those providing care to people with mental health conditions are the co-morbid behaviours that may occur, including self-harm (SH) and suicidal behaviours ( McLaughlin et al, 2014 ; O’Keeffe et al, 2021 ). The existing research in this field suggests that individuals providing care to people who carry out SH and/or enact suicidal behaviours could be at an increased risk of experiencing poor well-being, unhealthy stress levels and burnout ( Byrne et al, 2008 ; Simpson et al
tended to him as he suffered the effects of too much mamba (a synthetic cannabinoid) on the streets outside, donating bits of their packed lunch to rouse him, to the bemused indifference of onlookers. A frequent self-harmer, it was general belief that sooner or later his luck would run out. After a particularly long and intense conversation with him, I mentioned to an officer that he seemed to be in distress. He responded: “Him? Oh, he’s a waste of oxygen.” I saw this same officer, sitting down on the step with him following our brusque exchange. He took a considerable
Introduction My motivation to write this paper came as a result of reading the work of Scanlon and Adlam ( 2009 ; 2013 ; Adlam and Scanlon, 2018 ). Collectively these papers critiqued the widespread view in mental health and the in-group more widely, that people harm or neglect themselves intentionally. Instead, they argue from a psychosocially informed psychoanalytic perspective, that so-called self-harm and self-neglect could instead be reinterpreted as an ‘inarticulate speech of the heart’ ( Scanlon and Adlam, 2011 ), a murmuring symptom of discontent
Introduction As we explore in Chapter 2 , one of the key areas of online risk relates to content risk and it is the concerns related to harmful content that this chapter explores in detail. It takes as its focus the recent media and public discourse on the risk of content associated with mental health issues – namely pro-harm content, for example self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. ‘The internet is arguably now the major source of mental health information available to the public’ ( Jorm, 2019b : 364). There is increasing concern about the
potential concern is vast, including pornography, racist material, violent and gruesome content, self-harm sites (including pro-anorexia and pro-suicide sites), commercially exploitative material and more. The European Commission (EC) supports Safer Internet hotlines throughout Europe where people can anonymously report what they perceive as illegal or disturbing content (EC, 2009). Thirty-four hotlines across the globe are members of the International Association of Internet Hotlines see (www.inhope.org). This chapter focuses on children and young people’s access
of existing data. Defining nonsuicidal self-injury The prevalence of NSSI has risen significantly since 2000, a trend significantly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Plener, 2021 ; Tang et al, 2021 ). Often broadly referred to as self-harm, NSSI is characterised as a deliberate act that causes harm to oneself by physical injury habitually, for reasons assumed to be pathological, although there is little consensus on the specifics of how to define this behaviour ( Lengel et al, 2021 ). The clinical communities in the UK and US both stipulate explicit
in directions so complex and multifarious it was dizzying to unpick and precarious to navigate. I was at once confronted with competing ethical demands on interpersonal, institutional and gendered fronts. Davey, who was battling his own demons of vulnerability and self-harm as well as broader violence, expressed irritation about others discussing their scars with me: “I told him he shouldn’t do that to you, Miss.” He was dismissive of behaviour he saw as often characterized by a bid for attention and therefore manipulative: ‘They only do it for the sympathy
Accounts of female offenders’ journeys into the criminal justice system are often silenced or marginalized.
Featuring a Foreword from Pat Carlen and inspired by her seminal book ‘Criminal Women’, this collection uses participatory, inclusive and narrative methodologies to highlight the lived experiences of women involved with the criminal justice system. It presents studies focused on drug use and supply, sex work, sexual exploitation and experiences of imprisonment.
Bringing together cutting-edge feminist research, this book exposes the intersecting oppressions and social control often central to women’s experiences of the justice system and offers invaluable insights for developing penal policies that account for the needs of women.
