Work-related suicide: an international social justice perspective

This paper explores what the study of work-related suicide can contribute to emerging discussions of a “criminology of work.” It does so by chronicling work-related suicide as an under-researched and largely unrecognized phenomenon that requires a social justice lens in which the focus is on work-related suicide, not work-related suicide. The vast majority of suicides today occur amongst working-age adults and work or working conditions are contributory factors in 10% to 13% of all suicides. Extending beyond a potentially narrow mental health perspective in which suicide is framed as the outcome of individualised psychology, a social justice framework emphasizes the need to confront the varied (social, economic, political, cultural, historical) conditions that make life unliveable for some workers. It is concerned with transforming the structural conditions of work in contemporary globalized economies, not just interventions that address the impact of work for individual workers. In this sense, the paper challenges those interested in a “criminology of work” to consider the harmful conditions of work as a collective social justice issue that reflects the rules, policies and laws, and underlying ideologies and values, that shape all our working lives.