Coronial Practice, Indigeneity and Suicide

Gordon Tait, Belinda Carpenter and Stephanie Jowett
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Gordon Tait: Faculty of Education, School of Cultural and Professional Learning, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Belinda Carpenter: Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Stephanie Jowett: Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: All available data suggest that, like many other Indigenous peoples, Australian Aborigines are significantly more likely to kill themselves than are non-Aboriginal Australians. This statistical disparity is normally positioned an objective, ontological and undeniable social fact, a fact best explained as a function of endemic community disadvantage and disenfranchisement. This research explores the possibility that higher-than-normal Aboriginal suicide rates may also be a function of coronial decision-making practices. Based upon in-depth interviews with 32 coroners from across Australia, the following conclusions emerged from the data. First, coroners have differing perceptions of Indigenous capacity, and are less likely to have concerns about intent when the suicide is committed by an Indigenous person. Second, coroners have identified divergent scripts of Indigenous suicide, particularly its spontaneity and public location, and this supports rather than challenges, a finding of suicide. Third, the coronial perception of Indigenous life is a factor which influences a suicide determination for Indigenous deaths. Finally, the low level of Indigenous engagement with the coronial system, and the unlikelihood of a challenge to the finding of suicide by Indigenous families, means that a coronial determination of suicide is more likely.

Keywords: suicide; indigenous suicide; aboriginal Australian; youth suicide; mental health; coroner; legal decision making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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