GLOBAL TRENDS IN SUICIDE.   Term Paper ID:30150 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Discusses data on suicide rates in varioius cultures and coutries. Southern, Northern and Eastern European counries; the United States; Canada; Japan; China. Examines the magnitude of suicides as a social and health problam from a cross-cultural perspective. Variations with respect to culture, race, ethnicity, age, gender & socioeconomic status. Paper Introduction: The Magnitude of Suicide Across Cultures and Countries French sociologist Emile Durkheim was the first academic to extensively investigate suicide as a cultural phenomenon. Durkheim identified associations between rates of suicide and levels of social integration in certain populations and concluded that increased community and social involvement reduces suicidal risk (Weir, p. 634). Some one hundred years later, Durkheim’s observations remain relevant as universal suicide rates have increased since the 1970s (Weir, p. 634). According to statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide rates are particularly on the rise among young men, with increases most readily observed in those countries of the North in which prolonged winters (and the absence of sunlight) occur, among indigenous or native popula Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. 539-548.Plotnikov, N. "Suicides in Japan Reach a Record High." British Medical Journal, September 2, 2 , 321(726 ), p. Suicide rates in theBeijing region appear to be declining among youth and among the urbanelderly who may have better access to health care and social benefits thantheir rural counterparts. are firearms, strangulation, overdose, all other methods (inhalation, cutting, drowning, and falls); . 789-794.Anonymous. 852.Weir, Erica. In Canada, measures of domesticintegration (i.e., divorce and birth rates) and the economy (unemploymentrate) predicted youth suicide rates more successfully than in the UnitedStates and for adult Canadians. Other data revealed in this report included: . Interestingly, Johansson, Sundquist, Johansson, Bergman, Quist, andTraskman-Bendz (pp. Overall, approximately 43, Europeans succeed in suicideattempts each year; an additional 7 , are believed to have failed atone or more such attempts. 528) reported that in 1999, some 33, 48Japanese killed themselves - an increase of 185 on the record level set in1998. The largest number ofBangladesh female suicides were under the age of 3 and research revealedthat economic adversity and marital or family discord were the mostimportant causes of death in Bangladesh. per 1 , people. In addition, suicide is the second leadingcause of violent death in the 15 - 24 year-old age group in Europe, aftertraffic accidents (Watson, p. These data tend to demonstrate thatsuicide in the United States is a health issue among younger individuals,with a greater risk of the problem among white than non-whites. Nevertheless, these Asian countries appear to be anomalous withrespect to a higher observed incidence of suicide among females than amongmales. The Economist(p. The study found that in "wet" drinking cultureswhere social isolation was often prominent (e.g., Sweden, Finland, andNorway), suicide rates tended to increase in comparison to those in wetcountries where isolation due to social, economic and even climatic factorswas less prevalent (e.g., Italy, Greece, and France). The top states with respect to suicide rates were Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, p. "Regional Variations in Suicide Rates - United States, 199 -1994." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, August 29, 1997, 46(34), pp. This was followed by 25 percent among those intheir 5 s and 16 percent of those in their forties. "Suicide Among Foreign-Born Minorities and Native Swedes." Social Science & Medicine, January 15, 1997, 44(2), pp. Plotnikov (pp. "Suicides in the U.S., By Age, Race, and Sex, 1997." World Almanac & Book of Facts 2 1. In rural areas, elderly men and women havehigh suicide rates with women exhibiting higher rates among members of the15 to 34 age cohort in both urban and rural settings. "Put It Down to Cultural Difference." The Economist, October 5, 1996, 341(7986), pp. Unemployment,urbanization, religious beliefs about life and suicide, alcoholism and druguse, internecine conflicts and civil wars, and other stresses are alsoknown to impact upon suicide rates and propensities. 634-636.Yip, Paul S.F. This study appeared to demonstrate that atgreatest risk for suicide in Canada were males, with elderly males age 7 or over being at significantly greater suicide risk than their counterpartsin the United States or Western Europe. 54). and Lester, David. 875) reportedthat as of 1997, males were among the most likely Americans to succeed in asuicide attempt. Additionally, the agestructure of suicide in Russia also corresponds to that of other countries;a decline in youth suicides (except in Japan) has been almost universallyobserved, with increases in age occurring until about age 5 to 59 anddecreases after age 6 to 69. 12 3) cited data revealing that in China, women aremore likely to commit suicide than in almost all other nations. "Culturaldifferences," in other words, are important in this context. Canada was found to have anexceptionally high rate of suicide among adolescents and youth - higherthan the rate in the United States. A similar distinction can be drawn with respect to Northernversus Southern Europeans. American males are more likely than females to exhibit higher suicide rates, as are the elderly and certain racial/ethnic groups (i.e., non-Hispanic whites and Native Americans); . Suicide is also a major social and public health problem in severalAsian countries. "Suicide: The Hidden Epidemic." Canadian Medical Association Journal, September 4, 2 1, 165(5), pp. According to the WHO's global rankings, northernEuropean countries occupy no fewer than 8 of the top 1 ranks for mencommitting suicide. 62) examined suicide rates in China and found that therural suicide rate is about two to five times that of the urban rate invarious sex and age groups. Ethnicity (definedas being foreign-born) was a risk factor for suicide for both males andfemales. Mats Ranstedt (p. Spain, Italy, Greece, and Malta, however, were nearthe bottom of the list, along with such island paradises as Barbados andthe Bahamas. The data reveal variations with respect to age and gender, culture,race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. 62), is 31. Plotnikov (p.42) states that currently, the rate of successful suicides is increasing inthe poorer regions of the countryside. Of these, 4 percent were men in their 4 s and5 s. The Economist (p. Several studies found in the literature focused on one or moreEastern or Western European nations. Some 47 percent of all suicide victims in Japan were identified asbeing unemployed, thus suggesting that economic fluctuations there wereinstrumental in bringing about an increase in suicide. The estimated suicide rate in China, says Yip(p. While attitude may be a factor associated with variations in suiciderates, other factors also invariably play a role. Some onehundred years later, Durkheim's observations remain relevant as universalsuicide rates have increased since the 197 s (Weir, p. White males and females were found to be more likely thanAfrican-Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities to be at risk forsuicide. Between199 and 1994, there were 154,444 reported suicide victims; some 37 percentwere from the southern region, though western states tended to have thehighest rates. 181-182) found that ethnic or national original wasassociated with increased suicide rates among the general population ofnative-born and foreign-born Swedes. These researchers analyzed theinfluence of ethnicity, age, sex, marital status, and date of immigrationon suicide rates. About one-fifthwere women - a ratio that is both stable and close to the world ration of1:3 (females to males) or 1:4 (females to males). In Bangladesh, for example, one-half of the unnatural deaths in women were identified as occurring viasuicide, with poison the primary method of choice. All individuals over 15 years of age in the 1985 Swedishcensus were included in this study, while suicides and undetermined deathswere obtained from the central Cause of Death Register. The crude suicide rate in 1994 was 12. Hall Yip (p. 54) suggests that this becomes clear when one considers the case ofGreat Britain; of all the countries in Northern Europe, it has the lowestoverall rate of 7.9 suicides per 1 , people. "Alcohol and Suicide in 14 European Countries." Addiction, February 15, 2 1, 96(1), pp. 634). Works CitedAnonymous. "An Epidemiological Profile of Suicides In Beijing, China." Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Spring 2 1, 31(1), p. The lowest suicide rate, says Plotnikov(p. France, according to The Economist (p. 852). However, as Watson (p. The age cohort most at risk for suicide inRussia appears to consist of males age 3 to 59; a concentration of suicidein urban settings was observed prior to the decline of the Soviet Union,with rural suicide increasing since that time (about 1989). per 1 , people. 41-44.Ramstedt, Mats. 634). 875.Appleby, Louis. 5 ), serves to illustrate thelatitudinal orientation of suicide. 528) pointed out that men accounted for 71 percentof all Japanese suicides. 12 3-12 4.Johansson, L.M., Sundquist, Jan, Johansson, S.E., Bergman, Bo, Qvist, Jan, and Traskman-Bendz, Lil. 59) also examined the issue of suicide in thecontext of 14 European countries to test the hypothesis that a positivepopulation-level relationship between alcohol and suicide is more likely tobe found in dry drinking cultures (as indicated by consumption level) thanin wet drinking cultures. Thus, whilethere is some evidence supporting the existence of such a connection orassociation, it does not appear to be consistent across studies. People withmental illness, drug-abusing and alcohol-abusing younger males, andpatients with a history of inflicting physical harm upon themselves are thegroups being considered as at greatest risk. 12 3) also arguedthat suicide among women, regardless of their culture or national origin,appears to be most directly connected with these variables and with thehigher reported clinical incidence of depression among women throughout theworld. "Suicide in Russia." Russian Social Science Review, May/June 2 1, 42(3), pp. Further, Lamar (p. Stretches of the Breton coast have a suicide rate threetimes as high as that of Corsica in the south. 789) examined regionalvariations in suicide rates in the United States between 1994 and 1997. 181-188.Lamar, Joe. Males and females in the 25 to 34 year-old age cohort, followedby both genders in the 15 to 24 year-old cohort, were also at increasedrisk regardless of race or ethnicity. 634). Other countries once within theSoviet sphere of influence - e.g., Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary- also have higher-than-average suicide rates that exceed those of most ofthe countries of Western Europe. The primary reason the Japanese killed themselves was ill health,the excuse cited in 41 percent of the 9, 27 cases where the victim left anote. This report, despite its brevity, allows the researcher to drawseveral conclusions regarding trends in suicide across the globe. 59-76.Watson, Rory. Northern Europeans, on the whole, appear tohave higher suicide rates than do their Southern European counterparts.Though less pressing a social problem in the United States and Canada thanin other countries, suicide is still a major cause for concern. Additionally, thestudy revealed that in other relatively "wet" countries with relativelyhigh levels of alcohol consumption (e.g., Switzerland and Denmark) no clearassociation between suicide rates and alcohol could be found. Regardless of these variations, the European union (EU) has undertakenefforts to reduce suicide by targeting three groups across Europe whoappear most at risk for a suicide attempt (Watson, p. Joe Lamar (p. 852). In1994, suicide was the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. More recently, the World Almanac and Book of Facts (p. 5 ) reported that the North-South divide - thedichotomy between the developed nations of the "North" and the developingor less developed nations of the "South" - thrives in death as in life.Suicide rates in Southern Europe are lower than those in Northern Europe.For example, Finland - the northernmost country in continental Europe - hasa suicide rate of almost 3 per 1 , , as compared to the rate of 3.5 per1 , in Greece. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (p. The Magnitude of Suicide Across Cultures and Countries French sociologist Emile Durkheim was the first academic toextensively investigate suicide as a cultural phenomenon. "The EU Aims to Reduce Suicides." British Medical Journal, October 7, 2 , 321(7265), p. Similarcomments were also advanced by this researcher with respect to immigrantwomen born in the Indian subcontinent. Overall, Japan'ssuicide rate as of 1999 was about 17.2 deaths per 1 , people. 528.Leenaars, A.A. A total of 2,779 Japanese leaving asuicide note indicated that this was their primary reason for taking theirlife. 2 1, p. Each of these variables appearsto function independently of culture and nationality or, at the least, tomanifest differently with respect to culture and nationality. 5 -51.Anonymous. 41- 43), for example,looked at this problem in post-Soviet Russia and found that from 1995through 1996 some 1.4 million Russians committed suicide. 852)has commented, these categories cut across all national and culturalboundaries. 79 ). "Suicide in Women." The Lancet, April 8, 2 , 355(9211), pp. 43), is found in Greece, where there is a rate of 3 per 1 , . 539) compared suicide rates among youth andother groups in Canada and the United States. The leading methods of suicide in the U.S. These issuesare worthy of further research. Malesappear, with certain notable exceptions such as those of selected Asiancountries, to be more likely than females to attempt or complete suicide.Eastern Europeans are also apparently more at risk for suicide than WesternEuropeans. Leenaars and Lester (p. Durkheimidentified associations between rates of suicide and levels of socialintegration in certain populations and concluded that increased communityand social involvement reduces suicidal risk (Weir, p. Appleby (p. However, the most notable increase occurred among individuals citingeconomic reasons for their suicides. This report will examine, from a cross-cultural and multi-nationalperspective, the magnitude of suicide as a social and health problem. The national overall suicide rate ishigh, at 2 per 1 , ; almost all of these deaths occur in the country'snorthern half. Louis Appleby (p. Lithuania reported over7 suicides per 1 , men, whereas Tajikistan reported only 5.4 suicidesper 1 , population while Russia counted 66 compared to the Ukraine's38. 62. According tostatistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide ratesare particularly on the rise among young men, with increases most readilyobserved in those countries of the North in which prolonged winters (andthe absence of sunlight) occur, among indigenous or native populationsencountering the stresses of rapid development and globalization, amongwomen and adolescents in advanced industrial nations, and among groups orcultures with a high rate of alcoholism/drug abuse and/or depression (Weir,p. In terms of age, the greatest proportion of suicides (34 percent) wasin those aged over sixty. "The Changing Suicide Pattern in Canadian Adolescents and Youth Compared to Their American Counterparts." Adolescence, Fall 1995, 3 (119), pp. This isone of the highest suicide rates in the world, though still less than one-half the suicide rate of 35.3 per 1 , recorded in Hungary. Scholars sometimes attributethis difference to method of choice, noting that the French appear tocommit suicide by hanging themselves, Germans use guns, while the averagesuicidal Briton tries to die by swallowing poison - which, more often thannot, does not succeed (The Economist, p. The highest risk ratios for suicide in Sweden, adjusted for age,were found among males born in Russia and Finland; simultaneously, thestudy revealed that female immigrants from Hungary, Russia, Finland, andPoland all had higher risks of committing suicide in Sweden than in theirhome countries. Similar trends are evidentin countries that once comprised the Soviet Union. Even Puerto Rico andPortugal score higher on the WHO rankings. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.