The suicidal behavior of African females is a rarely explored topic. The present study is a descriptive analysis of fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior in Ghana. Patterns of both fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior recorded by the Ghana Police Service during 2006–2008 are examined and described in depth. The data show that during the 3-yr. period, there were 11 fatal and 4 nonfatal suicidal acts by females, out of the total 243 fatal and 44 nonfatal suicidal acts found in the official data. The author describes the ages and occupations of the women and girls who engaged in fatal and nonfatal suicidal behavior, as well as the suicide method, location, circumstances, and police-assigned motives for the suicidal acts. The author concludes that additional research on female suicidal behavior in Africa and other non-Western societies is warranted to develop a more precise understanding of suicidality.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdinkrahM. (1995) Crime, deviance, and delinquency in Fiji. Suva, Fiji: Fiji Council of Social Services.
2.
AdinkrahM. (2007) Women who kill their husbands: mariticides in contemporary Ghana. Aggressive Behavior, 33, 526–536.
3.
AdinkrahM. (2008a) Husbands who kill their wives: an analysis of uxoricides in contemporary Ghana. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52, 296–310.
4.
AdinkrahM. (2008b) Spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36, 209–216.
5.
AdinkrahM.ChandA. (1996) Suicide in Fiji: a nationwide survey. Suva, Fiji: The Univer. of the South Pacific.
6.
AmoakoheneM. I. (2004) Violence against women in Ghana: a look at women's perceptions and review of policy and social responses. Social Science and Medicine, 59, 2373–2383.
7.
AndersonP. L.TiroJ. A.PriceA. W.BenderM. A.KaslowN. J. (2002) Additive impact of childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse on suicide attempts among low-income African American women. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 32, 131–138.
8.
AndoverM. S.ZlotnickC.MillerI. W. (2007) Childhood physical and sexual abuse in depressed patients with single and multiple suicide attempts. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 37, 467–474.
9.
AppiahD. C.CusackK. (1999) Violence against women and children in Ghana. Accra, Ghana: Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre, [in English]
10.
AwenvaA. D.ReadU. M.Ofori-AttahA. L.DokuV. C. K.AkpaluB.OseiA. O.FlisherA. J. (2010) From mental health policy development in Ghana to implementation: what are the barriers?African Journal of Psychiatry, 13, 184–191.
11.
BebbingtonP. E.CooperC.MinotS.BrughaT. S.JenkinsR.MeltzerH.DennisM. (2009) Suicide attempts, gender, and sexual abuse: data from the 2000 British Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 1135–1140.
12.
CanettoS. S. (2008) Women and suicidal behavior: a cultural analysis. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78, 259–266.
13.
CanettoS. S. (2009) Prevention of suicidal behavior in females: opportunities and obstacles. In WassermanD.WassermanC. (Eds.), Oxford textbook of suicidology and suicide prevention: a global perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer. Press. Pp. 241–247.
14.
CanettoS. S.LesterD. (Eds.) (1995) Women and suicidal behavior. New York: Springer.
15.
ChaudronL. H.CaineE. D. (2004) Suicide among women: a critical review. Journal of the American Medical Women's Association, 59, 125–134.
16.
ChengA. T. A.LeeC. S. (2000) Suicide in Asia and the Far East. In HawtonK.Van HeeringenC. (Eds.), The international handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Chichester, UK: Wiley. Pp. 29–48.
17.
CockerhamW. C. (2011) Sociology of mental disorder. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
18.
DenningD.ConwellY.KingD.CoxC. (2000) Method choice, intent, and gender in completed suicide. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 30, 282–288.
19.
EnosS. K. (2002) Badu Guan: a celebration of high fertility among the people of Southern Ghana. In BledsoeC. (Ed.), Discovering normality in health and the reproductive body: proceedings of a workshop held at the Program of African Studies Northwestern University, March 9–10, 2001. Evanston, IL: Program of African Studies, Northwestern Univer. Pp. 91–94.
20.
Ewusi-MensahI. (2001) Post colonial psychiatric care in Ghana. Psychiatric Bulletin, 25, 228–229.
21.
FernquistR. M. (2004) Does single motherhood protect against Black female suicide?International Academy of Suicide Research, 8, 163–171.
22.
Ghana Statistical Service. (1999) Demographic and health survey. Accra, Ghana: Author, [in English]
23.
Ghana Statistical Service. (2002) 2000 Population and Housing Census: summary report of final results. Accra, Ghana: Author, [in English]
24.
GloverB. X. (2008) More youth attempt suicide. The Mirror, 15, July 12.
25.
GoldsmithS. K.PellmarT. C.KleinmanA. M.BunneyW. E. (Eds.) (2002) Reducing suicide: a national imperative. Washington, DC: The National Academic Press.
26.
HawtonK. (2000) Editorial: sex and suicide: gender differences in suicidal behavior. British Journal of Suicide, 177, 484–485.
27.
HicksM. H.BhugraD. (2003) Perceived causes of suicide attempts by U. K. South Asian women. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 73, 455–462.
28.
HopcroftR. L.BradleyD. B. (2007) The sex difference in depression across 29 countries. Social Forces, 85, 1483–1507.
29.
KonaduK. (2007) Indigenous medicine and knowledge in African society. New York: Routledge.
30.
KposowaA. J. (2001) Unemployment and suicide: a cohort analysis of social factors predicting suicide in the U.S. National longitudinal morality study. Psychological Medicine, 31, 127–138.
31.
LesterD. (2008) Women and suicide in Islamic Sub-Saharan Africa. Psychological Reports, 102, 734–738.
32.
McCaskieT. C. (2008) Gun culture in Kumasi. Africa: the Journal of the International African Institute, 78, 433–454.
33.
MiescherS. F. (2005) Making men in Ghana. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univer. Press.
34.
MoranM. (2004) Suicide risk may remain decades after sexual abuse. Psychiatric News, 39, 37.
35.
MoscickiE. K. (1997) Identification of suicide risk factors using epidemiologic studies. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 20, 499–517.
36.
MurphyG. E. (1998) Why women are less likely than men to commit suicide. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 39, 165–175.
37.
NtowW. J. (2008) The use and fate of pesticides in vegetable-based agroecosystems in Ghana. Leiden, The Netherlands: Taylor & Francis.
38.
ObengP. (2003) Gendered nationalism: forms of masculinity in modern Asante. In LindsayL. A.MiescherS. F. (Eds.), Men and masculinities in modern Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Pp. 192–208.
39.
OdameL. (2008) The suicide epidemic. The Mirror, 23, September 13.
40.
Oheneba-SakyiY. (1999) Female autonomy, family decision making, and demographic behavior in Africa. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen.
41.
PritchardC. (1996) Suicide in the People's Republic of China categorized by age and gender: evidence of the influence of culture on suicide. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 93, 362–367.
42.
QinP.AgerboE.Westergard-NielsenN.ErikssonT.MortensenP. B. (2000) Gender differences in risk factors for suicide. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 546–550.
43.
QuashigahK. (2007) Trends in the promotion and protection of human rights under the 1992 constitution. In Boafo-ArthurK. (Ed.), Ghana: one decade of the liberal state. New York: Zed Books. Pp. 21–48.
44.
RoyA.JanalM. (2006) Gender in suicide attempt rates and childhood sexual abuse rates: is there an interaction?Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 36, 329–335.
45.
SarpongP. (1974) Ghana in retrospect: some aspects of Ghanaian culture. Tema, Ghana: Ghana Publ. [in English]
Sefa-DedehA.CanettoS. S. (1992) Women, family, and suicidal behavior in Ghana. In GielenU. P.AdlerL. L.MilgramN. A. (Eds.), Psychology in international perspective. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger. Pp. 299–309.
48.
TakyiB. K.MannJ. (2006) Intimate partner violence in Ghana: the perspectives of men regarding wife beating. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 32, 61–78.
49.
The World Factbook. (2008) Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
50.
Van Der HoekW.KonradsenF.AthukoralaK.WanigadewaT. (1998) Pesticide poisoning: a major health problem in Sri Lanka. Social Science and Medicine, 46, 495–504.
VijayakumarL.NagarajK.PirkisJ.WhitefordH. (2005) Suicide in developing countries: 1. Frequency, distribution, and association with socio-economic indicators. Crisis, 26, 104–111.
53.
YipP. S. F.LiuK. A. Y. (2006) The ecological fallacy and the gender ratio of suicide in China. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 465–466.
