The validity of open-source data when assessing jail suicides.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' Deaths in Custody Reporting Program is the primary source for jail suicide research, though the data is restricted from general dissemination. This study is the first to examine whether jail suicide data obtained from publicly available sources can help inform our understanding of this serious public health problem.

Methods

Of the 304 suicides that were reported through the DCRP in 2009, roughly 56 percent (N = 170) of those suicides were identified through the open-source search protocol. Each of the sources was assessed based on how much information was collected on the incident and the types of variables available. A descriptive analysis was then conducted on the variables that were present in both data sources. The four variab

SUBMITTER: Thomas AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5955876 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature