Contemporary approaches to suicide and self-injury

Citation

Cramer, R.J. (2015), "Contemporary approaches to suicide and self-injury", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 7 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-04-2015-0168

Contemporary approaches to suicide and self-injury

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Volume 7, Issue 3

Welcome to Issue 7.3 of the Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research. This issue represents a Special Issue initiative addressing contemporary multi-disciplinary perspectives in suicide and self-injury. Papers in this issue reflect a combination of four empirical and three conceptual/applied papers. The specific topics covered in this issue are: the construct of Acquired Capability for Suicide among young adults, implementing contemporary approaches to suicide risk management in an era of health services emphasis, practical guidance for clinical supervision of suicide risk in correctional settings, conceptual development of the association between suicide and homicide, psychometric evaluation of the Attitudes towards Prisoners who Self Harm Scale, biological correlates of the construct of Acquired Capability for Suicide, and evaluation of risk and protective factors for suicide risk among military personnel. As one would hope for, the seven papers in this Special Issue bring forth a set of three themes offering logical framing for their discussion.

The first theme is seen in two papers offering novel insight into the concept of Acquired Capability for Suicide, a construct originally articulated by Joiner and colleagues’ Interpersonal-Psychology Theory of Suicide (IPTS) (Joiner, 2005; Van Orden et al., 2010). The Acquired Capability for Suicide is considered a necessary component that transitions suicidal desire to an actual suicide attempt or completion. Using a sample of emerging adults, Brausch and Holaday report empirical findings suggesting that the Acquired Capability for Suicide is distinct in nature when compared to participant reports of suicide history and suicidal imagery. Employing a sample of community members experiencing depressive and suicide symptoms, Smith and colleagues report preliminary empirical data suggesting rate of physiological habituation (a theoretically implicated component of Acquired Capability) was associated with negative suicide risk factors, but not self-reported Acquired Capability scores.

Two papers also address suicide and self-injury issues among the vulnerable population of incarcerated offenders. Magaletta and McLearen offer a tripartite approach to offering graduate psychology trainees supervised experiences in suicide risk assessment and management in a clinical setting. Complementing this important practice issue, Garbutt and colleagues offer an updated psychometric examination of the Attitudes towards Prisoners who Self Harm Scale, an assessment tool with potential utility for those who work with this at-risk population.

Our last set of papers in the Special Issue highlight timely assessment and treatment issues in today’s contemporary socio-political climate. For instance, Bowers and colleagues review the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide (CAMS; Jobes, 1995, 2000) as an evidence-based approach to treating suicidality that may be particularly amenable for implementation in accordance with policies like the Affordable Care Act. Hagan and co-authors provide conceptual clarification on the relationship between suicide and violence (i.e. murder) in their review of various cultural manifestations of self- and other-directed violence. Finally, Griffith examined rates of, as well as risk and protective factor for, suicide-related behavior among deployed and nondeployed soldiers. Key findings include elevated rates of suicide-related behavior among both solider groups (compared to the general population), as well as sample-specific risk and protective factors.

As always, the current issue of the Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research offersa wide range of inter-disciplinary perspectives of differing methodological approaches. The editorial team welcomes new submissions from a wide range of disciplines, theoretical backgrounds and methodologies that further our theoretical and practical understanding of human aggression, conflict and peace. We welcome submissions from academics, practitioners and policy makers alike, especially those that bridge the gap between these three perspectives. Submissions should be made through our ScholarOne site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jacpr.

Robert J. Cramer

References

Jobes, D.A. (1995), “The challenge and the promise of clinical suicidology”, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Vol. 25, pp. 437-49

Jobes, D.A. (2000), “Collaborating to prevent suicide: a clinical-research perspective”, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 8-17

Joiner, T.E. (2005), Why People Die by Suicide, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

Van Orden, K.A., Witte T.K., Cukrowicz, K.C., Braithwaite, S.R., Selby E.A. and Joiner T.E., Jr (2010), “The interpersonal theory of suicide”, Psychological Review, Vol. 117 No. 2, pp. 575-600