Citation

Rouse LM, Frey RA, López M, Wohlers H, Xiong I, Llewellyn K, Lucci SP, Wester SR. Police Q. 2015; 18(1): 79-108.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1098611114563083

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The issue of suicide among law enforcement personnel has garnered increasing attention. Unfortunately, little is known about the etiology of suicide for this group, and whether its rates warrant unique consideration as an at-risk population. This project used the psychological autopsy technique to examine the etiology of eight law enforcement suicides.

FINDINGS indicated that all employees in the sample demonstrated risk factors for suicide congruent with those of the general population. Prehire risk factors were elemental to most employee completions, including those related to family-of-origin context and substance abuse. Exposure to traumatic on-duty critical incidents was not a primary theme. The findings challenge the dominant theoretical perspective that law enforcement training, vocational culture, and exposure to traumatic on-duty events generate cognitive restriction and then patterns of substance abuse for those who complete suicide within this vocation. Suggestions for prehire screening are made, with a focus on the assessment for preexisting polarized cognitive styles.

Language: en