Download The sociological study of suicide

The sociological study of suicide
Key studies
• Durkheim (1897)
• Douglas (1967)
• Atkinson (1971)
• Taylor (1982)
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Seen as an important positivist study. In what sense?
• Used an objective research method, eg official suicide statistics
• Attempted to isolate the variables contributing towards suicide
• Attempted to identify law like relationships (ie wide ranging and
reliable generalisations which can be used to predict and explain
social phenomena).
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Durkheim studied official suicide statistics from 1840 to 1870, taken from
a range of European societies, looking at suicide rates:
• Over time in the same society,
• In different societies
• Between different sub groups in the same society.
• He used a comparative method.
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• He noted 3 things
• 1)Within single societies the suicide rate remains constant over time
• 2)There are significant differences in the suicide rate between
societies
• 3) Within the same society there are significant differences between
different social groups.
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Argued that if suicide were merely a personal act you would expect to find
less consistency so the causes must lie in society.
• From his analysis of official stats he concluded:
• That too much or too little social integration can cause suicide and too
much or too little moral regulation can cause suicide.
• Social stability depended on social integration and moral regulation being
balanced, with neither too much nor too little of either
What did Durkheim mean by social integration and moral
regulation?
• Social integration –
• The degree to which a person feel a sense of belonging to society and
integrated into a social group
• Moral regulation
• The way societies control their members beliefs
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• His main findings were:
• In urban areas suicide rates were high but in rural areas they were
low.
• Why?
• People with no family or children were more likely to commit suicide
than people with children and relatives – so family status had an
impact.
• Why?
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Marital status has an impact on suicide - Married people were less
likely to commit suicide than single people
• Why?
• Religion has an impact on suicide - Protestants were more likely to
commit suicide than Catholics
• Why?
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Identified 4 types of suicide
• Egoistic suicide
• Altruistic suicide
• Anomic suicide
• Fatalistic suicide
Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study – key points
• Durkheim believed that he had established a law of human
behaviour: that the suicide rate always rose during periods where
there was too little or too much social integration or moral
regulation
Criticisms of Durkheim
• Many sociologists have questioned the reliability of official suicide
statistics collected between 1840 and 1870 arguing there was no
systematic medical examination of the dead in many parts of Europe
until the late 19th century
• Halbwachs (1930) argues Durkheim is very vague in terms of his
definitions of social integration, anomie and excessive individualism,
making them difficult to measure
Criticisms of Durkheim
• Durkheim also makes assumptions about what being a Catholic or
Protestant means to the individual.
• Interactionists argue that official suicide statistics lack validity and
reliability. They are simply social constructions.
• Interactionists argue there is no point in trying to discover the causes
of suicide when no one can be sure whether a death is a suicide or
not since the only definitive witness is dead.
Criticisms of Durkheim
• Interactionists reject the use of official stats arguing that the
sociologist studying suicide should use qualitative methods and
sources of data, like studying diaries and suicide notes, and
interviews with coroners, relatives, and attempted suicides
• Scowcroft (2013)official stats underestimate the true numbers and
rate of suicide. Coroners in certain societies such as Catholic societies
may decide on a verdict of accidental death to spare relatives the
social stigma attached to suicide.
Douglas (1967) –
nd
2
key study
• The interactionist Douglas (1967) is very critical of Durkheim’s
approach. He believes that Durkheim’s work is flawed and argues that
whether a sudden death is classified as a suicide or not depends on
the very things Durkheim claimed caused suicide and these vary
between countries and between social groups within the same
society.
• Douglas argues that the more integrated a community the more likely
it is that they will try and cover up a suicide
Douglas (1967) –
nd
2
key study
• Douglas also looks at the social meaning attached to suicide arguing that
this can affect the suicide statistics.
• What does this mean?
• How different societies perceive the act of suicide, eg what it means to
them. Some societies see the act as more positive than others and thus
will be more ready to classify a death as suicide than others, eg in Japan
suicide seen as honourable, but in Catholic societies a sin.
• This highlights problems of validity and reliability with the suicide stats
Atkinson (1971) –
rd
3
key study
• Atkinson (1971) again is critical of Durkheim’s use of official statistics,
arguing that whether or not a death gets categorised as a suicide is
simply a product of the interpretations of others, and that it is
impossible to know the real number of suicides.
• Atkinson specifically focuses on the role of coroners.
• Atkinson adopted a qualitative approach, looking at decision making,
he interviewed coroners and staff and also observed at inquests
Atkinson (1971)
• Atkinson argued that when investigating a suspicious death coroners
have five possible verdicts in the UK. These are death by natural
causes, death by misadventure, homicide or suicide or the’ open
verdict’
• Atkinson argued that the problem that coroners have is that they
cannot ask the person who has died whether they meant to kill
themselves, so they can only guess at the truth by looking for ‘clues’
in the circumstances surrounding the death.
Atkinson (1971)
• They look at primary and secondary clues.
• Primary clues include whether there was a suicide note, mode of
death and location of death
• Secondary clues include information coroners get about the deceased
state of mind and life history, often obtained from relatives who may
attempt to influence the coroners verdict
• Atkinson argued that like the rest of us coroners have common sense
assumptions about the causes of suicide, and if the information about
the deceased fits their theory they are likely to categorise his or her
death as a suicide.
Atkinson (1971)
• Consequently suicide statistics may not be a reflection of real rates of
suicide but simply a reflection of coroners common sense
presumptions about the nature of suicide victims. In this sense they
lack validity.
Taylor (1982) – Deaths on the London
underground
• Taylor (1982), based on interviews with coroners and their officers
and observation of inquests, found that coroners see breakdowns in
personal relationships, unemployment, history of both mental and
physical illness, and coming from a broken home as important aspects
of unhappiness and as such are more likely to issue a suicide verdict if
the deceased fits their picture.
Taylor (1982)
• Taylor investigated 32 deaths under London underground trains in
1982, where the mode and scene of death were identical and no
suicide notes were left. Only 17 of these were eventually labelled as
suicide.
• When he observed at inquests, Taylor concluded that suicide verdicts
were not returned on the other 15 because relatives influenced the
coroner’s interpretation of the state of mind and life history of the
deceased prior to the death.