The Relationship between Suicidal Ideation and Psychache among Incarcerated Female Offenders

Although female inmates are considered to be the population who are at high risk of committing suicide, little attention has been paid to this field, since most of suicide in correctional facilities are typically committed by males. This paper attempted to investigate some psychological factors which may affect female inmates’ suicidal ideation. Specifically, this paper focused on the role of psychache, intense and chronic psychological pain which leads to suicide. The data was collected from 95 female inmates in two Canadian prisons. The results indicated that psychache was the only factor which predicted the participants’ level of suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is suggested that the screening tools which focus on psychache will be useful in examining the inmates’ risk of suicide. Also, it shows that for the successful rehabilitation, providing the treatment which precisely addresses psychache among inmates is important