Suicide - Kenilworth Sixth Form

Suicide - Kenilworth Sixth Form

1. Durkheim

   • compared suicide rates between countries and subgroups
     • found that suicide rates vary
       • but remain stable over time
         • suggesting that suicide is determined by structural social factors
   • the underlying cause of suicide is too much or too little social control
     • egoistic - lack of integration
     • altruistic - over integration
     • anomic- lack of regulation
     • fatalistic - over regulation

2. Interpretivism

   • criticise the statistics
     • claim they are socially constructed
     • statistics are the product of interpretation, negotiation and decision making by social actors
       • for example, family members can influence verdicts by revealing or withholding certain information
   • Atkinson
     • coroners socially construct suicide statistics
       • coroners look for primary clues such as type of death and secondary clues such as the biography of the deceased to make a decision on the type of death
       • variations in suicide rates may simply reflect the different ways in which coroners go about categorising suspicious deaths
   • Douglas
     • used case studies, informal interviews and personal documents to study suicide
     • conclusions
       • suicide can be understood in terms of:
         • revenge
         • search for help
         • repentance (regret or remorse)
         • escape
       • suicide is an individual act that has personal and social meaning

3. Realism

   • Taylor
     • claims suicide statistics are socially constructed
     • study of suspicious deaths on the London Underground
       • none were clear-cut suicides
       • social factors influenced verdicts such as witnesses and a history of mental illness
       • half the cases resulted in a verdict of suicide even though there was no conclusive evidence of suicidal intent
     • parasuicides
       • most acts of deliberate self harm fall somewhere in between genuine and fake suicides
       • risk taking behaviour should be the focus of sociological research
     • findings and conclusions: two main types of suicide and suicide attempts
       • ectopic - inner directed
         • submissive - certain about themselves
         • thanatation - uncertainty about themselves
       • symphysic - a way of communicating with others
         • sacrifice - certain about others, eg. their partner has had an affair
         • appeal - uncertainty about others