Suicide Numbers
Sooner or later a suicide cleanup technician becomes interested in the causes of suicide. After all, we're blind. After a few years of cleaning up suicide scenes, we begin to wonder where to begin. I mean, we begin to wonder, "Where do I begin to learn about suicide?". Most of my suicide cleanup web site now have something to say about theories of suicide. These theories usually summarize and interject comments by scholars interested in suicide. Neural scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, sociologists, suicidologists, and even anthropologists find a way into my pages. Even Edward Bernay now has a place on this very web site. See my "Conversation with a dying sister."
A trip to the Internet reveals suicide explained in a variety of ways. So where else would a person begin? A "Suicide for Dummies" will appear one day with a lot of valuable information in it. I'd like to be its author, but that's one task I have not time or skill enough to write. So, I'll stick to a strict explanation of what I know. Just the same, there's plenty here for a beginner.
The beginning student of suicide needs to understand there are two major approaches to studying suicide, an internal and an external.
- The internal suicide explanations study our mental condition. This approach looks for mental health issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar conditions, and more. Sometimes researchers from the "old school" look for demons possessing the suicide victim. We call this a "psychology of suicide" because it seeks answers inside our head. (Exceptions are found in the 18th and 19th centuries with anatomical investigations through actual autopsies.) Psychologists, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, social psychologist, and counselors have their own schools of thought about the causes of suicide. These specialists in the study of suicide look to depression, anxiety, fear, schizophrenia, and other mental health issues. Manipulation of the mind with chemicals comes under their study.
- The external approach to the study of suicide, which looks to numbers. That is numbers of people belonging to certain groups become objects of study. Religion seems to be the largest group for study. Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Protestant, and various pantheism's come under scrutiny of suicide investigators. Other groups for study include gender, family birth order, occupation. ethnic group, nationality, and other variables. Most studies involve attention to current and historical statistical samples. Often we look to sociologists gathering these important numbers related to suicide.
What we learn from looking at numbers are facts. Facts to the social sciences are important because they help to explain what's going on beyond individuals. To do this, they place each suicide victim within a group, a "demographic group," find commonalities and differences.
For example, we learned that between 1928 in 1932 in Minneapolis that men were more likely to kill themselves on Tuesdays. Meanwhile on Thursdays in Minneapolis, women were more likely to kill themselves. A study of radio shows shows that country music becomes an important variable when looking to white male suicide rates.
So looking at numbers for groups becomes important to understand is going on. Although we may not get an inside look at each individual, we do get some sense society that have influences over suicide. Court according to the World Health Organization, over 1 million people die each year from suicide considering that this number is greater than all the deaths from war and murder, suicide understanding becomes very important. Sometimes politicians look to suicide rates are political purposes. President Eisenhower, our most famous general, at least in the 20th century, propose that Sweden's high suicide rate related to Sweden's many socialized program. Some Republicans would call the socialized oh grams socialism. What president Eisenhower failed to point out is that in 1960 Sweden had about the same suicide rate as it had in 1910, long before Sweden at socialized social welfare programs. Plus, to the avid student, Sweden does not qualify as a socialist country. It does qualify as a liberal, social democratic.
Well Sweden and another Scandinavia country, Denmark, rate high in suicides, Norway, rates low. Oddly enough, Norway suicide rate remains lower than Scandinavian neighbors. The Nordic planning group on sociology found that Denmark has stronger family cohesion then it's Scandinavian neighbors. As stronger ties and neighborhood, social clubs, and church bonds in Norwegian groups. The famous sociologist, Durkheim, one of our first sociologist to study suicide, made note of the Norwegians strong group bonding. Herbert and then found that in Denmark children learn to use guilt as a way to arouse guilt and others. Children also learn to suppress aggressive feelings. In Denmark, children are urged to depend more on their mothers. This gives motherhood more power in child raising, at least in Denmark. And it may have something to do with the suicide rate in Denmark.
Norwegian mothers allow their children more freedom to express feelings. Children grow up less concerned with their performance. Children grow up more able to express their emotions. Norwegians are more able to express anger and frustration. And it may have something to do with the suicide rate in Norway.
It turns out that different countries with different societies, experience different suicide meanings. We must look to cultural groups synthesizing psychological social in cultural factors before we can begin to understand national trends in suicide. Norwegian suicide differs the meaning then suicide in Japan, for example. It's the same in the United States were suicide among urban blacks differs from suicide among urban whites. It turns out the time and place suicide becomes part of the equation. The common denominator for all suicides in these countries turns out to be an happiness.
Consider Lithuania and United States. Lithuania suicide rate is four times greater than the US suicide rate. Today, if we look to hungry Denmark Austria Sweden Japan West Germany Switzerland Finland, we find high suicide rates compared to other countries. And it seems that the more reasonable explanation follows from the chaotic social life in these countries. Unemployment and alcoholism factor into their suicide rates. Following Paris Broca, the suicide rate for Russian males declined by 32% nearly 4 times the decline for males in some other nearby countries.
When we look to countries like Italy, Spain, and Mexico, which have fewer than 10 per 100,000 suicides, we look to the Roman Catholic Church and its influence. Catholicism has long declared suicide a sin. Then we have the case of Catholic Austria, which as one of the highest rates anywhere in the world it's hard to say with any exactness exactly what numbers apply to anyone countries suicide rate. We need to consider that Catholics will be slow to report a suicide. It's to a family's benefit, to report a suicide as an accidental death, or as another type of death. In the former Soviet Union there were political reasons for manipulating suicide numbers.
In the United States sometimes it's to the benefit of a family to deny the loss of a loved one to suicide. This occurs because insurance companies do not honor life insurance policies for suicide within the first two years of the policy's life. In the United States the rate of suicide hovers around 11.0 to 100,000 . Durkheim showed us that during war suicide rates go down. It seems that people are less concerned about their own trials and tribulations during war and more concerned about the welfare of their nation. We found this to be so in the first world war, and we found it to be so during the second world war. After the war, and ever sense suicide rate has remained fairly constant in the United States. Except one qualification, the suicide rate among soldiers in United States has risen dramatically since the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. During the Vietnam War, the suicide rate among civilians remained fairly stable, but increased among soldiers in Vietnam veterans.
Economic indicators links unemployment and ill health with suicide increases. Problems such as divorce child conflicts, mental and physical problems all add to suicide increases. In fact researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate that for each point unemployment rises, suicide increases 4.%.
If we would've flying the highest rate of suicide in the United States we need to look at Reno Nevada and Las Vegas Nevada. Many people come to the cities hoping to reverse their economic situation. Suicide cleanup in these cities became a very lucrative business following congresses creation of the blood-borne pathogen act protect those exposed to blood in the workplace. It's not unusual to find corners and poison the cities somehow involved in cronyism. This means the corners of employees received kickbacks for referring families and companies to suicide cleanup companies.
We should look to California, Oregon, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Florida with routinely high suicide rates. One reason for these rates includes their elderly populations. It turns out that older white males commit suicide more often than any other demographic group. Gun ownership in the states also attributes to suicide.
Immigration
Immigration to a new country for the first generation shows suicide rates equal or about the same for the first generation immigrants as experienced in their home country. For example Greek, Irish, and I Italian immigrants show relatively rolled rates of suicide. We find the same or similar suicide rates in their home country. Whereas Scandinavian, Australian, and German immigrants show the same or similar suicide rates is in their home country. This all changes with the second-generation immigrant's. Referring back to Danish and Norwegian suicide statistics, we find their numbers 2 to 3 times higher as he emigrate to the United States.
Town versus country
Early on, sociologist tended to believe that suicide rates were greater in cities than in the country areas. They reason that the struggle first survival in the city occurred at an intense and increasing tempo. Whereas, in the country people were more self-reliant, new others from early on in life, and thereby received communities work in their endeavors. Now we see things differently. In cities people have greater access to mental health facilities. In cities, one can usually find a new social or peer group. Whereas, in the country everyone knows everyone else and probably knows more about one another and they should. In the country, there's greater access to guns. Also, in China, the suicide rate in the country is 3 to 4 times higher than in the city.
Looking at life in cities provide some curious results. New York City's suicide rates are relatively low compared to other cities. In newer cities then New York City, were social institutions remained fragmented in their early development years, suicide rates were higher. Schools, families, churches, and workplaces were more fragmented. As shown in cities with lower suicide rates and a longer history of development, suicide rates were lower. Looking to cities like Chicago and Philadelphia, suicide rates remain moderate compared to newer cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Social isolation in cities shows a higher rate of suicide among those with new wealth and those with little wealth.
A land of anonymity becomes a land of greater suicide, in 1928, sociologist Ruth Kvan found that 27% of suicides in London were living a long. The suicides often occurred in lodging houses another dwellings for transients.
Comments for suicide in literature
time ear tends to play a role for some suicides. In Moby Dick, Ishmael describes a suicidal depression as a "a damp grizzly November in my soul." T. S. Elliott April is the cruelest month it has a rate of at least 12% above other months it turns out that spring is more deadly month for suicidal people in the winter months.
