Nel giorno della Festa della Repubblica, due tragedie in divisa richiamano l’urgenza di una prevenzione stabile, riservata e non punitiva della fragilità professionale
Abstract: The suicide of a young Carabinieri officer at the Carabinieri station in Varazze, which occurred on 2 June—the same day marked by the death of a young Local Police officer—requires a sober and non-episodic reflection on vulnerability within the uniformed services. Every act of suicide belongs to a complex personal history and resists simplistic interpretations; however, when it occurs within a place of service, it also acquires an institutional dimension, raising questions about organisational culture, the relationship between discipline and vulnerability, access to psychological support, and the capacity of institutions to recognise distress before it becomes irreversible.Prevention requires permanent structures for listening and support, confidential and non-punitive assistance pathways, specialised training for commanders and supervisors, systematic debriefing following critical incidents, and the development of a professional culture in which seeking help is recognised as an act of responsibility rather than a sign of weakness. Only through a comprehensive and proactive approach can institutions effectively safeguard the wellbeing of their personnel while preserving the integrity and effectiveness of public service.
Keywords: #Carabinieri #Varazze #Biella #SuicidesAmongUniformedPersonnel #MentalHealth #OrganizationalWellbeing #Prevention #Vulnerability #UniformedServices #CarabinieriCorps #WorkRelatedStress #PublicSafety #MassimilianoMancini #EthicaSocietas #EthicaSocietasJournal #ScientificJournal #HumanSciences #SocialSciences #EthicaSocietasUPLI
The Tragedy on the Morning of Republic Day
The tragedy unfolded on the morning of 2 June 2026, Republic Day, at approximately 8:30 a.m., inside the Carabinieri station in Varazze, where the officer was serving. It occurred on the very same day and at virtually the same time that a young Local Police officer took her own life in Rho. The Carabinieri officer, originally from the province of Biella, died within the station premises, prompting the immediate intervention of emergency services. However, the medical personnel of the 118 emergency service and volunteers from the Varazze Red Cross, who arrived promptly at the scene, were only able to certify his death.
The coincidence with Republic Day lends the event an additional symbolic significance. The 2nd of June is the day on which the Italian State celebrates itself, its democratic form, its constitutional history, and the value of republican institutions. Yet on that very day, within a local outpost of the State, a member of the Carabinieri lost his life. This is not a matter of constructing emotional overinterpretations or forcing a personal tragedy into a rhetorical narrative. Rather, it requires acknowledging that the place and timing of the event raise profound questions concerning the relationship between institutions and individuals, between public service and human vulnerability, and between the discipline of duty and the need for care.
The succession of these tragic events has become striking not only because of the recent increase in such occurrences, but also because of the coincidence in timing, location, and circumstances surrounding the extreme act.
The Burden of Discipline and the Culture of Silence
Service within the Carabinieri entails daily exposure to conflict, emergencies, suffering, violence, social marginalisation, operational risk, and decision-making responsibility. Those who intervene during the most difficult moments in the lives of others inevitably carry with them, over time, a burden of emotional experience that does not always find adequate opportunities for processing and reflection.
The greatest risk lies in confusing a culture of silence with professional strength. The ability to withstand stress is undoubtedly necessary, but it cannot become an obligation to suppress suffering. Discipline remains an essential component of uniformed organisations; however, it cannot justify the absence of listening and support. Likewise, operational efficiency retains value only when it is not separated from the wellbeing of the individuals who make public service possible.
When seeking help is interpreted as a personal failure or as a loss of professional reliability, distress tends to remain hidden and becomes rooted in silence. Conversely, when help-seeking is recognised as an act of responsibility towards oneself, colleagues, and the institution, it can become the first step in a process of protection, support, and prevention.
Research on suicidal behaviour consistently demonstrates that prevention is most effective when implemented before an acute crisis develops, strengthening protective factors, reducing stigma, facilitating access to services, and fostering meaningful relationships capable of counteracting isolation (O’Connor & Kirtley, 2018; World Health Organization, 2014). Applied to uniformed services, this perspective requires recognising that psychological wellbeing is not a secondary or welfare-related issue, but rather a fundamental condition for the quality and effectiveness of public service.
Belonging, Professional Identity, and Isolation: A Sociological Perspective
Beginning with Durkheim, the sociology of suicide has shown that suicidal behaviour cannot be interpreted solely as an individual act, but must also be understood through the lens of social bonds, integration, regulation, and the quality of collective belonging (Durkheim, 1897/2005). Without mechanically applying this framework to a single event, it remains useful for understanding that professional organisations may function, depending on their internal quality, either as protective environments or as sources of isolation, as communities of belonging or as spaces where suffering remains unnamed.
Within uniformed services, professional identity is particularly strong because individuals do not merely perform a job; they embody a public role, a symbol, a discipline, and a commitment to protecting the community. Such an intense identity may generate meaning, belonging, and pride. Yet it may also make it more difficult to distinguish between personal failure and professional difficulty, between temporary vulnerability and loss of worth, between the need for support and the fear of no longer being worthy of the uniform. When role identity becomes excessively rigid, suffering risks being perceived as incompatible with membership in the group.
From this perspective, the barracks constitute a social microcosm in which the relationship between the individual and the institution becomes particularly intense. Peer support, the quality of leadership, the possibility of speaking openly without fear of judgment, and the perception that vulnerability can be acknowledged without punitive consequences are crucial factors in transforming professional belonging into a protective resource. Conversely, when silence, shame, fear of judgment, or distrust in the confidentiality of support mechanisms prevail, the organisational community may fail to recognise distress, even when it develops within its own ranks.
The Delicate Issue of Access to Highly Lethal Means
One of the most complex aspects of suicides among uniformed personnel concerns access to highly lethal means. This issue must be addressed with balance, avoiding ideological simplifications and refraining from turning service weapons into a polemical target. In many operational functions, firearms remain essential instruments of service, public safety, and community protection. Nevertheless, when an individual experiences an acute crisis, immediate access to lethal means imposes a specific responsibility upon the organisation.
International suicide prevention strategies place particular emphasis on reducing immediate access to lethal means during periods of crisis—not as a punitive measure, but as a protective intervention capable of creating time, interrupting impulsive actions, and enabling access to assistance (World Health Organization, 2014). Within uniformed organisations, applying this principle requires procedures that are highly confidential, proportionate, respectful, and non-punitive, ensuring that personnel can seek support without fearing that their vulnerability will automatically become a professional stigma.
Trust is the key factor. If an officer perceives help-seeking as the first step toward penalisation, permanent loss of status, reputational damage, or exclusion from the group, he or she is likely to conceal distress. Conversely, when the system is perceived as offering care, confidentiality, support, and temporary protection, individuals are more likely to seek assistance before a crisis becomes irreversible. The objective must never be to punish those who are suffering, but rather to protect the individual, colleagues, families, and the service itself.
Prevention as an Organisational Standard
The prevention of suicide among uniformed personnel cannot be conceived as an exceptional response activated only after tragedy occurs, nor can it remain dependent upon the personal sensitivity of individual commanders, the spontaneous solidarity of colleagues, or the mere existence of support services that are formally available but practically inaccessible.
Instead, prevention must become a permanent organisational standard integrated into the everyday life of barracks, internal procedures, initial and continuing training, leadership practices, professional relationships, and the daily culture of uniformed services. Prevention means creating environments in which distress can be recognised before reaching a crisis point, where seeking help is not perceived as failure, where vulnerability does not become stigma, and where access to qualified support is confidential, timely, and non-punitive.
Truly effective prevention requires independent and credible listening channels, training for commanders and middle managers in recognising signs of distress, systematic debriefing following critical incidents, regular monitoring of organisational climate, support procedures during periods of personal or professional difficulty, and assistance mechanisms for colleagues emotionally affected by the loss of a fellow officer. The psychological health of personnel cannot be treated as a private matter disconnected from service quality, because it directly affects decision-making capacity, conflict management, group cohesion, internal trust, and the safety of the communities served.
Only within this framework can tragedy cease to remain an isolated event entrusted solely to subsequent mourning and painful remembrance, and instead become a public concern capable of generating protection, listening, and responsibility. Within uniformed organisations, prevention must be accorded the same importance as operational training, discipline, and physical safety, because no institution can legitimately ask its members to protect society without also providing adequate means to protect their own vulnerability.
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Durkheim, É. (2005). Suicide: A study in sociology (J. A. Spaulding & G. Simpson, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1897)
Joiner, T. (2005). Why people die by suicide. Harvard University Press.
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111.
O’Connor, R. C., & Kirtley, O. J. (2018). The integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1754), 20170268.
Schaufeli, W. B. (2017). Applying the job demands-resources model: A “how to” guide to measuring and tackling work engagement and burnout. Organizational Dynamics, 46(2), 120–132.
Stanley, I. H., Hom, M. A., Hagan, C. R., & Joiner, T. E. (2016). A systematic review of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics. Clinical Psychology Review, 44, 25–44.
Violanti, J. M., Charles, L. E., McCanlies, E., Hartley, T. A., Baughman, P., Andrew, M. E., Fekedulegn, D., Ma, C. C., Mnatsakanova, A., & Burchfiel, C. M. (2017). Police stressors and health: A state-of-the-art review. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 40(4), 642–656.
World Health Organization. (2014). Preventing suicide: A global imperative. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2023). Preventing suicide: A resource for media professionals: Update 2023. World Health Organization.
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