Military Suicide Rating

In order to understand the behavior of the military suicide rating, it is imperative to look at the rate and trends over the years. LeardMann (2013) reported another overwhelming static that displays from January 1998 to December 2011; there were 2,990 service members committed suicide while on active duty averaging 21.4 per 100,000 soldiers. Amongst the male population, the annual number of deaths was 151 in 1999 and 296 in 2009. The number of female suicides over the same period ranged 4 in 2001 and 16 in 2011. These rating uncovered that there has been an increase in the number of deaths for both men and women on active service over these past decades. Different branches within our armed forces recorded higher suicide rates than others.

The policy changes surrounding the military operations have been in the spotlight as it have been linked as the leading causes of suicide. The decision of the Department of the Army to implement waivers for new recruits’ physiological status to fill personnel requirement to fight the ongoing War on Terrorism. This appears to have some degrading affects quality of the soldier enlisting as they are not prepared to endure hardships of war and it after effects. A closer examination into the army policy has failed to support this hypotheses since there has been no significant difference in the rate of suicide between those who found the policy in operation and those who had endured the conventional training. Between the years of 2003 to 2006, these military waiver was not in effect (Bachynski et al., 2012). The number of suicides soared during this period, therefore, the revised military training may not be a primary contributing factor. Many scholars hypothesized that soldiers in the line of duty were assured of compensation for their families when they committed suicide during deployment. The number of soldiers committing suicide while in deployment or immediately after returning home has been high’ however, this explanation does not address the number of deaths occurring among the troops who are not on a