SUICIDE
Issues:
- How explain the social distribution?
- Are statistics reliable?
- What is the best way to do sociology?
DURKHEIM'S STUDY OF SUICIDE
His aims were:
- Identify causes
- Encourage scientific methods in sociology
The Social Causes of Suicide
Durkheim looked at social rather than individual causes, because the was a functionalist. He argued that suicide stayed stable over time in any culture, and so the variations are caused by social characteristics of society which are the causes. The two main causes he identified:
Integration of the individual into society, i.e. shared values. In traditional societies, integration is based on the sameness of the population. In modern, it's the interdependence resulting from the division of labour.
How much individual's desires are morally regulated. This means society gives a framework of goals and the means to obtain them.
When these two things are in balance, the suicide rate stays stable.
When not, there are four types of suicide, the first two are characteristic of modern societies, where individuals are freed from social constraints, the second are from traditional societies, where the individual is dominated by the social group.
Egotistic, caused by too little integration, higher if unmarried, childless, Protestant.
Anomic, too little moral regulation, occurs when gap between aspiration and achievement too large.
Fatalistic, too much moral regulation, where felt that there's no control over life. eg. young offenders in custody.
Altruistic, too much integration, gives up life for group eg. hunger strikers.
Evaluation of Durkheim's Work
Internal Critics. Followed Durkheim's methods, but came to different conclusions, eg. Iga (1986) identified the main causes of suicide in modern Japan as fatalistic and altruistic. Internal critics were called such as they accepted the scientific approach but rejected findings.
Psychiatric critics. Focused on individual rather than social causes. Pritchard linked suicide with mental illness, rejected by Durkhiem.
Criticisms of Durkheim's Scientific Approach
- Interactionalists reject scientific methods and deny social factors. They say the social meanings given to labels of behaviour means suicide is a label It's the motive for the act that defines it as suicide, not the coutrcome.
- If see suicide statistics as a social construction, then it's not an objective, real world event. Coroners decide. juries, witnesses ect all make decisions and assumptions based on:
- The biography of the suicide, does it fit?
- Circumstances of death, how many pills, where shot.
Interactionalists use suicide, deviant and offender in quotes to show they're labels, not objective facts.
Extra Information
Durkheim often considered clearest example of positivist approach. OK in exams. S. Taylor (1990) said that he wasn't a positivist, but actually took a realist view of science (unlike many of his followers).