NCJ Number
193574
Date Published
2001
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article compares the dimensions, etiology, and social construction of police and correctional officer suicide.
Abstract
The author focuses on occupational, organizational, and societal factors that influence both police and correctional officer suicide, as well as on the perception of these problems. This analysis supplements and complements, rather than displaces, the findings and insights of psychological studies. Although the public may be fascinated by police suicide, as evidenced by media attention to it, police departments themselves are inconsistent in their attention to the problem. Statistics are not always kept, and when suicide is addressed at all, the focus is on suicides of persons in custody rather than on officer suicide. This is even more the case for correctional officers. Consequently, there is a similar imbalance in training. Officer suicide statistics and prevention measures are examined for the New York City Police Department and the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC). Attention is given to the low suicide rate among NYCDOC officers. This is attributed to exemplary training and intervention programs that address suicide and the problems associated with it. One section of this article compares the etiology of police and correctional officer suicide. The article concludes with an outline of John Violanti's (1996) recommendations for addressing the problem of police suicide. Among the recommendations are organizational attention to the unintended consequences of police and organizational actions that may increase officer stress, peer counseling to complement professional counseling programs, the consolidation and administering of employee assistance programs under a central authority, the systematic evaluation of assistance programs, the study of and replication of successful intervention programs, and the inclusion in basic training programs of a unit on officer suicide. 1 table