Interpretivism And Sucide

Question 1

Criticisms of Douglas

Answer 1

• there’s no proof that sociologists will be better at interpreting deaths than coroners

Question 2

Douglas: the social meanings of suicide

Answer 2

• he criticised Durkheim on 2 main grounds

1) The use of suicide statistics
- the decision to classify a death is taken by the coroner and influenced by social actors
- socially isolated individuals will have no one to oppose a suicide verdict on their behalf
- suicide verdicts are the product of interactions- relatives and friends

2) Actors meanings and qualitative data
- he criticises also for assuming there is a fixed and constant meaning
- meanings of suicides vary between cultures
- Instead of categorising suicides we should use qualitative data to produce case studies on suicides- in depth interviews
- also it overcomes having to rely on statistics
- it allows to get behind labels that coroners attach to cases discover the real meaning on the death