Suicide

Suicide

1. Positivist

   • Durkheim
     • It is a social fact
       • because it follows regular patterns
     • It is not an individual act but the result of social forces and influences
       • To demonstrate this he compared suicide rates in Europe
         • Found that there was consistency between the rates of particular countries and the social groups
           • High Suicide Rates
             • Protestants, City Dwellers, Older Adults, Unmarried, Married but no children
             • These groups had lower levels of social intergration
           • Low Suicide Rates
             • Catholics, Rural Dwellers, Younger Adults, Married, married with children
     • Social integration is a key factor in the rate of suicide in a social group
       • There has to be a balance between Integration and Regulation
         • Regulation is the use and impact social control on individuals and society
         • Integration is the strong relationships individuals have with one another
     • Used the Comparative methods (eg protestants and Catholics)
     • Used Quantitative Data
       • looked at suicide rates

2. Interpretivist

   • Douglas
     • Uses Qualitative methods
       • to discover meanings victims give to acts of suicide
       • Looks for patterns of meaning to classify suicides into different types
       • Suggest patterns of meaning are linked to wider beliefs in culture of society.
         • for example: In traditional Inuit society it was normal for old people to kill themselves if there was not enough food to go round in a family
   • Atkinson
     • Uses phenomenological approach
       • Suicide is merely a meaning
       • Focuses on work of coroners who give meaning to unexplained deaths
         • Coroners use ‘common sense’ and primary and secondary cues to classify deaths
   • argue that people can think, make choices and attach meanings to things unlike plants or chemicals so we must understand meanings attached to the act of suicide.
     • Statistics may appear objectionable but can be socially constructed

3. Realist

   • Taylor
     • agrees with interpretivists that suicide statistics reflect the biases and interpretations of coroners
       • however rejects the idea that suicide is merely a social construct
         • we need to study underlying motives for suicide.
         • need a balance between symphysic/ectopic
   • argue that underlying structures and mechanisms are also at work in human society
     • not everything in society is directly observable

4. Different Types

   • Altruistic
     • too much integration, eg Japanese kamikazi pilots
   • Egoistic
     • integration too weak, eg characteristic of societies undergoing change leading to breakdown of traditional social ties
   • Fatalistic
     • regulation too strong, eg prisoners committing suicide in prison.
   • Anomic
     • regulation too weak, eg rapid change such as economic crisis causes suicide.