The objective of the study was to examine the association between lifetime arrest and marijuana-related first arrest with past-year suicide ideation among Black and White people. We used data from Wave-IV (2008–2009; N = 5114) of the publicly available National Adolescent Health Study (Add Health) data. A total of 4313 Non-Hispanic Black and White participants were selected for this study. Logistic regression was used to assess whether lifetime arrest and marijuana-related arrests were associated with past year suicide. Overall, 28.8% of the sample reported lifetime arrest, 6.3% reported lifetime suicide ideation, and 3.7% reported marijuana-related arrest. A significantly higher percentage of Black people (32.3%) in comparison to White people (27.4%) reported lifetime arrest (χ² = 9.91; p < 0.001; df = 1). Among Black people, lifetime arrest (AOR = 2.98; 95% CI, 1.66–5.35; p < 0.001) and marijuana-related arrest (AOR = 4.09; 95% CI, 1.47–11.35; p < 0.001) were both associated with lifetime suicide ideation. Given the rate of death by suicide among Black people has been rising for two decades, further efforts are needed to educate and inform key stakeholders including law enforcement and policymakers regarding racial disparities in arrests, which may contribute to reducing risk for death by suicide among Black people.

该研究的目的是调查黑人和白人中终身逮捕和与大麻相关的首次逮捕与过去一年的自杀意念之间的关系。我们使用了 公开的国家青少年健康研究 (Add Health) 数据中的 Wave-IV（2008-2009 年； N = 5114）的数据。共有 4313 名非西班牙裔黑人和白人参与者被选参加这项研究。使用逻辑回归来评估终身逮捕和与大麻相关的逮捕是否与去年的自杀有关。总体而言，28.8% 的样本报告称终生被捕，6.3% 的人称终生自杀意念，3.7% 的人称因大麻相关被捕。与白人 (27.4%) 相比，黑人 (32.3%) 报告终身逮捕的比例明显更高 (χ ²  = 9.91; p  < 0.001; df  = 1)。在黑人中，终生逮捕（AOR = 2.98；95% CI，1.66–5.35；p  < 0.001）和大麻相关逮捕（AOR = 4.09；95% CI，1.47–11.35；p  < 0.001）均与终生相关自杀意念。鉴于黑人自杀死亡率二十年来一直在上升，需要进一步努力向包括执法部门和政策制定者在内的主要利益相关者提供有关逮捕中种族差异的教育和信息，这可能有助于降低黑人自杀死亡的风险人们。