Suicide - Kenilworth Sixth Form

Durkheim
1. compared suicide rates between countries and subgroups
  1. found that suicide rates vary
    1. but remain stable over time
      1. suggesting that suicide is determined by structural social factors
2. the underlying cause of suicide is too much or too little social control
  1. egoistic - lack of integration
  2. altruistic - over integration
  3. anomic- lack of regulation
  4. fatalistic - over regulation
Interpretivism
1. criticise the statistics
  1. claim they are socially constructed
  2. statistics are the product of interpretation, negotiation and decision making by social actors
    1. for example, family members can influence verdicts by revealing or withholding certain information
2. Atkinson
  1. coroners socially construct suicide statistics
    1. 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
    2. variations in suicide rates may simply reflect the different ways in which coroners go about categorising suspicious deaths
3. Douglas
  1. used case studies, informal interviews and personal documents to study suicide
  2. conclusions
    1. suicide can be understood in terms of:
      1. revenge
      2. search for help
      3. repentance (regret or remorse)
      4. escape
    2. suicide is an individual act that has personal and social meaning
Realism
1. Taylor
  1. claims suicide statistics are socially constructed
  2. study of suspicious deaths on the London Underground
    1. none were clear-cut suicides
    2. social factors influenced verdicts such as witnesses and a history of mental illness
    3. half the cases resulted in a verdict of suicide even though there was no conclusive evidence of suicidal intent
  3. parasuicides
    1. most acts of deliberate self harm fall somewhere in between genuine and fake suicides
    2. risk taking behaviour should be the focus of sociological research
  4. findings and conclusions: two main types of suicide and suicide attempts
    1. ectopic - inner directed
      1. submissive - certain about themselves
      2. thanatation - uncertainty about themselves
    2. symphysic - a way of communicating with others
      1. sacrifice - certain about others, eg. their partner has had an affair
      2. appeal - uncertainty about others

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Suicide - Kenilworth Sixth Form

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	Created by Louise Earp over 8 years ago