Criminal Justice
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Criminal Justice
Abstract
The steady rise and spread of Suicide as a crime in the public domain and law enforcers have posed a lot of concern to the responsible bodies. Research done in the U.S. indicates that Suicide is causing many law enforcers deaths than other tragic incidents that cause death like diseases. As a result, law enforcement agencies have come in to look into the crime and find a way of reducing it. The paper looks at why Suicide is a severe social health problem, what influences the decision to commit Suicide, and what law enforcement agencies are doing to prevent Suicide among law enforcement officers. Some of the findings of Law enforcement agencies indicate that stress, poor nutrition, and working conditions are some of the causes of Suicide among law enforcers. To minimize crime, law enforcement agencies have relevant training for the police to contain the crime influencers.
Introduction
Amongst criminal deaths witnessed across the world, Suicide is the most common and has lost several lives. Challenges of life, like pressure at workplaces, family issues, breakups, deadly diseases, or even loss of jobs, are some of the things that cause Suicide among people. Suicide thus touches people from all backgrounds worldwide, whether high income or low-income persons.
Seriousness and Impact of Suicide on Law Enforcement Agencies
Suicide is the latest vice threatening the public and the police; in fact, research in the U.S. has it that, Suicide amongst the law enforcers is comparable to that of the people. There has been a steady rise in suicide cases in recent past years; thus, the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention has obligated itself to reduce the instances. Every suicidal death affects a family, a community, and, eventually, a nation and has a lasting impact on the people left behind (Larkin et al., 2018). The number of officers who take their lives annually keeps increasing, consequently raising the alarm to the world due to lack of enough law enforcers and maintaining order. When an officer commits Suicide, the colleagues must be disturbed, and some may even opt to quit service. As a result, different views on Suicide have emerged, and at times victim families stigmatized over the same. To some extent, stigma has made some families shy from disclosing their loved ones’ cause of death. Otherwise, officers have many underlying problems that agitate the crime upon them.
What Influences the Decision of an Officer to Commit Suicide
Most unfortunate decisions of officers occur while they are tackling job-related problems. Lack of sleep, intense thoughts, lack of exercise, nutrition problems, access to firearms, and alcohol abuse may influence an officer’s decision to commit Suicide. Law enforcers work for long hours and forgo their sleep, which is very important health-wise (Miller 2020). Long hours on duty would mean very little or no time with their loved ones; thus, constant family constraints. The police also face very traumatic accidents or incidents that affect their mental stability on almost a daily basis, like viewing dead bodies and other terrifying stuff like accidents. Consequently, they are left vulnerable and desperate to all sorts of emotions that drive them to the vice, given the easy access to weapons.
What Law Enforcement Agencies are doing to Prevent Suicide
When the deaths occur, families, friends, fellow officers, organizations, and the country suffer. Law enforcement agencies have, therefore, come with programs to prevent fatal crime amongst officers. Most of them offer mental health and suicide prevention training to officers (Kop et al., 2017). When the mind is stable and robust, no amount of stress can quickly bring it down to a decision such as Suicide.
Resilience training offered to the officers also helps them gain confidence in handling stress and remain calm in times of distress (Bowen et al., 2020). The training also provides healthy habits that police tend to interfere with, such as getting enough sleep, good nutrition, and exercising regularly. Officers need to pay attention to issues that are affecting society and learn from them. The training convinces officers that it’s not only them that face challenges in life and help them manage stress. Furthermore, the agencies train people within the law enforcement team to discern the officers at risk and connect them to support agencies before they do anything fatal like Suicide.
The number of stresses of life does not seem to reduce; in fact, they build on, and officers are not an exemption to any form of life challenges. The harder the officers’ challenges become, the more the agencies should find comprehensive strategies to protect officers’ lives.
References
Christopher, M., Bowen, S., & Witkiewitz, K. (2020). Mindfulness-based resilience training for aggression, stress and health in law enforcement officers: study protocol for a multisite, randomized, single-blind clinical feasibility trial. Trials, 21(1), 1-12.
Miller, L. (2016). Shots fired: Stresses and strategies in officer-involved shootings. In Stress in Policing (pp. 115-134). Routledge.
Miller, L. (2020). The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Policy. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Sollie, H., Kop, N., & Euwema, M. C. (2017). Mental resilience of crime scene investigators: How police officers perceive and cope with the impact of demanding work situations. Criminal justice and behavior, 44(12), 1580-1603.
Spillane, A., Matvienko-Sikar, K., Larkin, C., Corcoran, P., & Arensman, E. (2018). What are the physical and psychological health effects of suicide bereavement on family members? An observational and interview mixed-methods study in Ireland. BMJ open, 8(1), e019472.