Assessment, intervention, and prevention of self-injurious behaviour in correctional environments : Automutilation en milieu carcéral : évaluation, intervention et prévention

The study of SIB has been plagued with many difficulties, not the least of which is the confusion of definitions and terms used to refer to the behaviour. [...] While the Aboriginal group reported lower levels of suicidal intent and a higher likelihood of prior SIB, the lack of a significant interaction between race and self-injury suggests that similar conclusions about the correlates of self-injury can be reached for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders. [...] A meta- analysis on the utility of the BHS in predicting future SIB, particularly repetitive SIB, found that while the sensitivity of the test is high enough to identify the majority of people who would repeat the behaviour, the specificity is quite low, so that an unfeasibly large number of individuals who will not repeat the behaviour will be identified as at risk (McMillan, Gilbody, Beresford & [...] For this group, the sensitivity of the SCOPE was much better than that of the BHS (meaning that more individuals who were at risk were screened in with the SCOPE than with the BHS) and the specificity was comparable (about the same number of individuals were incorrectly screened in using both measures). [...] However, since some of the information is based on the offenders’ behaviour in the institution, the model may not be useful for the prediction of SIB in newly admitted inmates.