SOC212 - 7. Suicide Flashcards
Introduction
Suicide takes place across all age groups (teens, middle-aged + elderly)
process, not a just a single act, that varies between groups, situations + time periods.
Suicidal Behaviour
defined as intentional and deliberate destruction of one’s own life.
In Canada, 3700 to 4000 people commit suicide annually.
Suicidal Behaviour
Second highest cause of death for youth in Canada
Euthanasia is suicide motivated by desire to avoid suffering that results from disease or injury
Suicidal Behaviour
Death caused indirectly by actions without immediate lethal consequences may also amount to suicide
Vulnerability
factors that make an individual vulnerable to suicidal behaviour include:
• Mental illness
• Abuse
• Loss of a loved one early in life
Vulnerability
• Family history of suicide
• Long-term difficulty with peer relationships
not causal, but combinations can result in suicide
Public Attitudes
majority of countries condemn suicide
Some countries have historically approved suicide.
Legal prohibitions - against state’s laws/religion
economy crumbles without ppl
Public Attitudes
Social acceptance or condemnation of suicide varies
associated with stigma of mental illness
some countries accept suicide - shame, widows (Japan)
condemnation varies depending on religion and education
Attempted Suicide
Suicide attempts may number as many as 20x total number of successful suicides
Women attempt suicide more frequently than men; however, men are more successful
Attempted Suicide
CAMH: 200 attempts per day
most occur in settings that encourage or allow intervention by others
Reporting Issues
Problems with providing statistics on suicide
Media portrayal
Variance in rates - underreported by authorities and media
Reporting Issues
insurance claims: cover ups by family + friends
in response to social stigma
sensitive topic in conversations
when it comes to celebrities - insensitive
Reporting Issues
rates fluctuates with economy + war - great depression - went up to 17.4 in 100,000
differ by country + within countries (regions, gender, age)
go down around holidays
rates within military have gone up
Differences
Gender Differences
Men tend to use more dangerous or immediately lethal (guns) means than women (chemical or knives)
Differences
Age Differences
Men’s suicide rates increase with age, while women’s rates peak at 45 to 54 years of age.
rates increase with age
Differences
Race: In the U.S., White people kill themselves at substantially higher rates than that occur among African Americans. In Canada, Aboriginal and First Nations communities have extremely high suicide rates
Differences
Marital Status: Married people commit suicide at
lower rates than single, divorced, or widowed people.
social support, economic support
Differences
Religion: Suicide rates of Catholics fall below those of Protestants
Differences
Sexuality & Gender Identity: LGBT youth face approximately 14x risk of suicide + substance abuse than their heterosexual peers
Differences
77% of trans respondents in an Ontario-based survey had seriously considered suicide + 45% had attempted suicide
Differences
inverse relationship with education
depression - often undiagnosed and untreated
Occupation and Social Status:
Those with less education are twice as likely to commit
Differences
suicide than those with most education
Occupational status, by itself, doesn’t effectively predict suicide
Differences
mental illness: depression
often undiagnosed and untreated
suicide result of combination of diff things
Durkheim’s Suicide
Durkheim saw suicide as result of degree of social intergration + regulation in a society
prevalence of group unity + strength of ties binding people together.
Durkheim’s Suicide
Suicide is not individual phenomenon, but consequence of social organization and social structure
Durkheim’s Suicide
Types of Suicide • Altruistic • Egoistic • Anomie • Fatalistic
Altruistic Suicide
Suicide for benefit of others or community
Does not necessarily constitute a deviation
religious rites, warfare, illness, reaction to violating diff norms, military
seen as duty, noble, deviant if we don’t
taking a bullet for president
Egoistic Suicide
Excessive individualism + low social integration
committed by people who are not strongly supported
more individual
Anomic Suicide
Suicide when individuals feel “lost” or normless in situations (life has no more meaning)
governed by confused or disrupted social values
Downward social mobility (stock market crashes)
Fatalistic Suicide
Excessive regulation
Occurs in social conditions where the individual experiences pervasive oppression
rare (prison suicide, slavery)
Social and Religious Integration
Durkheim’s theory asserts that greater social integration produces a lower suicide rate
integration protective risk factor
Social and Religious Integration
Suicidal behavior displays an inverse relationship to the stability of social relations among people + extent to
which social institutions, whether religion, family, or others, integrate them together
Theories of Suicide
Status Integration: status + class influences suicide rate Status Frustration: status in relation to others, causing aggression which leads to suicide
Theories of Suicide
Community Migration: dealing with life changes + new culture, low social supports
Socialization of Suicide: learn how to commit suicide
The Suicide Process
Ringel (1977) identified 3 principal components of predictable suicide syndrome
1) Constricting/narrowing alternatives, leaving problems with an all-consuming image and no way out except suicide
The Suicide Process
2) certain aggressive response directed toward oneself, perhaps leading to self-blame for an unfortunate accident or some other trauma in one’s life;
The Suicide Process
3) Indulgence in suicidal fantasies that construct and mentally play out suicidal acts.
suicide process involves unsuccessful attempts of finding alternatives to multiple problems seen as the last resort
Social Meanings of Suicide
Suicide, Mental Disorders, and Hopelessness: People who commit suicide do not express any identity as mentally deranged or suffer from temporary insanity.
Social Meanings of Suicide
learn to commit suicide + associate certain benefits
link with mental illness is hopelessness
do not express identity of deranged
Social Meanings of Suicide
Most suicides follow rational planning + careful execution with no more evidence of mental disorder
many have multiple attempts
Social Meanings of Suicide
Among mental disorders, severe depression seems to bear most common association with suicide by creating suicidal through (suicide ideation) or behavior.
Social Meanings of Suicide
suicide ideation: steps
the more complex the plan is, more danger + greater likelihood of success
Preventing Suicide
Efforts to prevent suicide rely heavily on identification of social forces that ultimately produce suicide
Preventing Suicide
Research has identified a number of risk factors
Suicide Prevention Centres
no way to know unless in therapy or tells someone
Teen Suicide
Adolescents cannot evaluate their immediate difficulties in perspective of lifelong events (Clinard & Meyer)
more attention paid onto teen suicide
second leading cause of death for youth in canada
can’t evaluate (perspective) immediate problems
Teen Suicide
High rates of LGBTQ youth suicide: syndemics
greater mental illness
more of a reaction to homophobic culture
Teen Suicide
internal homophobia
14x more likely to commit suicide
great percent of gay youth attempt suicide
Suicide in Canada
10.8 in 100,000 national
suicide rate (2011 – Stats Canada)
ontario: 8 per 100000 - lowest in country
nunavut: 77 per 100000
fairly stable rates, small fluctuation
2009 - 100000 years lost of human life due to suicde
peaked in late 70s - 25 for men
Suicide in Canada
16.3 in 100,000 for men
5.4 in 100,000 in women
Regional Differences
Military: jumps after discharge
Suicide in Canada
Aboriginal & Indigenous Population: 2-7x higher rates
aboriginal youth: 11x higher
combination of substance abuse, fetal alcohol, family seperation, abuse, poverty, unemployment, assimilation, intergenerational effects
Global Suicide
Every 40 seconds someone commits suicide (WHO)
our rates are kind of low
million commit suicide every year
Global Suicide
2012 - 1.45% of all deaths in world
15th leading cause of death
Factors
mental illness
Global Suicide
structural reasons: poverty, economic hardship
substance abuse
with each economic crisis rates go up
hopelessness intermingled with poverty
Suicide in Japan
18.7 in 100,000
Leading cause of death
function of suicide in military - seen as morally responsible on occasion
since 90s, going up disproportionately
leading cause of death for men 20-24, women 15-20
Suicide in Japan
National social issue
Cultural tolerance: more tolerant, mostly in history
Factors
breadwinner ideology - feel like a failure - shame
depression, social pressures, high social expectations, forced retirement
Suicide in Japan
economic changes - more difficult to get a job for life
overworked
1/4 financially motivated - debt - commit suicide to lift burden on family
forest: eerie silent forest where ppl commit suicide
Euthanasia in Canada
Passive Euthanasia: withdrawing life saving procedure, withholding water
Active Euthanasia: intentional killing to relieve pain
considered to be murder
Euthanasia in Canada
Sue Rodriguez: had als, asked court to let someone help her commit suicide
her main argument appealed to equality and justice
suicide is not a crime, she was being discriminated against, her disability made it so that she could not commit suicide
Euthanasia in Canada
Sue Rodriguez: On February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that the law banning assisted suicide was unconstitutional
