Domestic Violence and Suicide Death Among Individuals Released from Jail

Individuals charged with domestic violence (DV)-related offenses may have an elevated risk for suicide due to shared risk factors between suicide and perpetration of DV as well as risk associated with legal system involvement. The current study examined the association between history of DV-related offenses and suicide among individuals released from jail in King County, Washington state (WA). Using a retrospective cohort design, records from 282,246 individuals released from King County jails from 1999 to 2018 were linked to death records from 1999 to 2020. We compared the risk of suicide death and firearm suicide death among individuals released from jail with a history of DV-related offenses with (a) an age, sex, race, and ethnicity matched population of King County and WA and (b) individuals released from jail without a history of DV-related offenses. The standardized mortality ratio for suicide death was 1.80 (95% CI [1.61, 2.01]) among individuals released from jail with a history of DV-related offenses compared to King County residents and 1.51 [1.35, 1.68] compared to WA residents. Among those released from jail, having a history of DV-related offenses was associated with 1.31 [1.14, 1.49] times the risk of suicide death after adjusting for demographic and criminal history factors. Findings of this study suggest that individuals released from jail with a history of DV-related offenses are at elevated risk for suicide death compared to the general population as well as compared to non-DV offenders released from jail. Future research should evaluate suicide interventions such as brief safety planning, including lethal means access, after release to reduce the risk of suicide among perpetrators of DV.