Death by Suicide

Introduction

Anoted thanatologist has observed that death has cultural, economic, medical, and social implications and effects (Blacher 1987). This is no less true of events caused by those who intentionally take their lives. As a subarea of thanatological study, suicide, or self-induced death, has a different connotation from those deaths that result from natural processes, accident, or even homicide. All the ingredients, such as emotional pain, grieving, and sense of loss are the same among survivors, but suicide represents a death form that in many ways continues to be shrouded in mystery (Mazza, 150).

Discussion and Analysis

The widely accepted method of reporting suicide rates is to give the number per hundred thousand population. For example, the overall suicide rate in the United States is, varying somewhat from year to year, 11 or 12/100,000, meaning that for every 100,000 people there are 11 or 12 suicides per year. Reporting statistics this way takes into account the fact that one group—for example, college students—may have many more people than another group—for example, physicians. Because of the overall larger number of one group, it will have more actual suicides than the smaller group. By using a ratio or percentage, the figures from one group can be fairly compared to another. Although the absolute number of suicides in a small group might be small compared to the larger group, the smaller group may actually have a higher suicide rate, which is, in fact, the case for Native Americans compared to the overall population (Mazza, 150).

Having described the rationale for how suicides are reported, it must be noted that these per 100,000 figures reflect the number of officially reported suicides—that is, those in which the death certificate notes death by suicide. Researchers in this field agree that the official figure—for example, 12/100,000 in the United States—underestimates ...