Introduction

Suicide is a major public health issue, however, little is known about the characteristics/circumstances of suicide events. Data from law enforcement (LE) call reports are an important source of information related to suicide. Hence, this study explores suicide events captured in LE call reports.

Method

This mixed-methods study used data from call reports collected in a metropolitan county in 2017 in a Midwestern state wherein LE responded to suicide incidents (N=213). Descriptive and bivariate analyses of quantitative data were used to assess differences between incident type (i.e. attempts vs. deaths). Themes of suicide emerged from the qualitative data.

Results

Findings revealed that suicide decedents tended to be male, older, and had at least one intrapersonal issue as a precipitating factor. The qualitative sections illuminated three themes across suicide attempts: self-harm as an autonomy seeking strategy; challenging claims of suicidality; and promising to not self-harm.

Conclusions

Suicide incidents that rise to the level of crisis requiring a LE response is understudied in both the suicide and LE literature. Increasing the sophistication of call report documentation procedures would allow for communities to deepen their understanding of how suicide manifests and could create pathways to non-institutionalized care.

中文翻译：

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执法和自杀呼叫服务：自杀未遂和死亡的混合方法研究

介绍

自杀是一个重大的公共卫生问题，然而，人们对自杀事件的特征/情况知之甚少。执法 (LE) 通话报告中的数据是与自杀相关的信息的重要来源。因此，本研究探讨了 LE 呼叫报告中捕获的自杀事件。

方法

这项混合方法研究使用了 2017 年在中西部州的一个大城市县收集的电话报告数据，其中 LE 对自杀事件做出了反应 (N=213)。定量数据的描述性和双变量分析用于评估事件类型之间的差异（即企图与死亡）。自杀的主题是从定性数据中浮现出来的。

结果

调查结果显示，自杀者往往是男性、年龄较大，并且至少有一个个人问题作为诱发因素。定性部分阐明了自杀企图的三个主题：自残作为寻求自主的策略；质疑自杀的说法；并承诺不会自残。

结论

自杀和 LE 文献都对上升到需要 LE 应对措施的危机水平的自杀事件进行了充分研究。提高呼叫报告记录程序的复杂性将使社区加深对自杀如何表现的理解，并可以创建非机构化护理的途径。