How do recruits and superintendents perceive the problem of suicide in the Italian State police

Background. Suicide in international police is 2-3-fold that of the general population. Risk factors include suicidal ideation, diagnosis of mood or post-traumatic stress disorders, family/psychological problems, suffered abuse, alcohol use, service suspension, and stigma. A false stigma-related myth is to believe that suicide does not cause concern within military settings. Methods. We administered post-training to 6103 Italian Police workers a 30-item questionnaire to assess the perception of suicidal phenomena. We conducted descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, and analyses of variance of data. Results. We identified seven factors, i.e., health and environmental risk factors; need for new preventive interventions; emotional reaction to suicide; negation, indifference and minimization; utility of current preventive interventions; risk related to personal factors; intervention difficulties. Conclusions. The questionnaire showed content validity and consistency in investigating perceptions about suicide in the State Police. Data synthesis showed a mature approach and appropriate perception of the suicide problem on behalf of Italian State Police workers.