A person’s job and gender may determine how likely they are to commit suicide, according to a report from the Center for Disease Control. Women in law enforcement, for instance, commit suicide at a higher rate than women in any other occupation.
The CDC analyzed data from 2012 and found women in protective services, like police officers and firefighters, commit suicide at a higher rate than women in other professional groups. For every 100,000 women in protective services, 14.1 committed suicide in 2012.
The CDC says “higher suicide rates among police are related to stressors including exposure to traumatic, violent, and lethal situations; work overload; shift work; and access to lethal means.”
While trauma and exposure to violence is a factor in suicides, the study did compare suicide rates among military personnel to civilians. It was too difficult to separate active duty from reservist and retired military personnel, the authors said.
The authors suggest gender also plays a role as in the high rate of suicides among female law enforcement officers. “Females in protective service occupations might also experience additional stressors in these traditionally male-dominated occupations,” the study says.
For women, legal fields have the second highest suicide rate at 13.9 per 100,000. The third highest rate is among healthcare and other technical fields at 13.3 per 100,000.
Overall, men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women. Of the suicides studied by the CDC, 77 percent were men, 23 percent were women. Suicide rates are increasing — about 40,ooo Americans committed suicide in 2012, which is 21 percent more than in 2000.
Farming has the highest suicide rate for men. The lead researcher for the CDC study says that’s because farmers often work alone. “People working in certain occupations are at greater risk for suicide due to job isolation, a stressful work environment, trouble at work and home, lower income and education, and less access to mental health services,” lead researcher Wendy LiKamWa McIntosh told WebMD.
“Overall, the lowest rate of suicide (7.5 [per 100,000]) was found in the education, training, and library occupational group,” the study says.
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