Causes and Prevention of Suicide Among Metropolitan Police Officers in Thailand

Nattapong Panyakan

PhD. candidate of Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Mahidol University, Thailand.

Punchada Surivunnabood

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Mahidol University, Thailand.

Abstract:

There has been an increase in the number of suicides among police officers in the past 10 years in Thailand. This research aimed to explore the causes of suicide among metropolitan police officers in Thailand. It attempts to find out measures to prevent the suicide problem among metropolitan police officers. This qualitative research was conducted through the in-depth interviews, through a purposive sampling method to select 20 non-commissioned and 20 commissioned police officers in Bangkok. The questionnaire method was employed to collect data from the sample. The results revealed that a major cause of suicide among metropolitan police officers was financial problems due to insufficient income and debt. The minor causes were negative relationships at workplace and suffering stress from work. The overloaded work also resulted in stress, that also led to suicide among metropolitan police officers in Thailand. Several measures were identified in this study to prevent the incidents of suicide among metropolitan police officers such as allocation of proper benefits, building good relationships among commanders, subordinates, and co-workers in police agencies, and strengthening physical and mental immunity of police officers. It is hoped that these findings would provide useful insights to the policy makers and officials to find solutions to reduce suicide among police officers.

Keyword:

Suicide, Police officers, Prevention Measures, Criminology, Thailand.