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On Suicide in European Countries: Some Theoretical, Legal and Historical Views on Suicide Mortality and Its Concomitants
1997 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International , 1997. , p. 44
Series
Stockholm studies in sociology, ISSN 0491-0885 ; 5
Keywords [sv]
Attityd, dödlighet, historia, lag, kultur, självmord, teori
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-6567ISBN: 91-22-01753-4 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-6567DiVA, id: diva2:402860
Available from: 2011-03-18 Created: 2011-03-03 Last updated: 2017-06-26Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Are There Social Correlates to Suicide?
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Are There Social Correlates to Suicide?
1997 (English)In: Social Science and Medicine, ISSN 0277-9536, E-ISSN 1873-5347, Vol. 44, no 12, p. 1919-1929Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A structural-sociological approach to suicide research holds that an aggregate-level cause of suicide should correlate with the suicide rates in a population. In 1980, Sainsbury, Jenkins, and Levey published the article “The Social Correlates of Suicide in Europe” which related the suicide rates in 1961–1963 and the changes in them in the following 11 years to 15 social variables in 18 European countries. Its main findings were that the changes in suicide rates could be attributed to specific changes in the social environment. Complementary discriminant analyses showed that it was possible accurately to divide the countries into low- and high-change suicide rate groups on the basis of a combination of the social variables.

Although criticized for its method, the study has been widely quoted and sometimes presented as the most definitive current study on the subject. In order to see whether its results held for similar data 16 years later it was replicated for 1977–1979 and the ensuing 11 years, with data and method as similar as possible to the original.

The results agreed with those of the original study on only one point: the correlations between the levels of the social variables and those of the suicide rates were similar in both periods. However, changes in the suicide rates were unrelated to either the levels of the social variables or the changes in them: correlations found in the original study tended to change profoundly or disappear. Moreover, the results of the original discriminant analyses were a property of the method employed and thus independent of the data.

Statistical artefacts or social processes such as changing expectations are unlikely to explain the suddenly changing or vanishing correlations. The original correlations seem to have been largely spurious and dependent on the fact that the more modern countries in Europe experienced a “suicide boom” in the 1960s. As the boom waned in these, it was beginning in the less modern countries: the correlations between the processes indicated by the social variables and the suicide rates were reversed or disappeared.

The results call the existence of clear relations between these “suicidogenic” social circumstances and the suicide rates into question. Since many of the variables used are traditional “Durkheimian” indicators of the integration of society, a critique of this still-dominant view of the relationship between society and suicide mortality, or its common operationalization, is implied.

Keywords
Durkheim, modernisering, samhälle, självmord
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-6556 (URN)10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00016-6 (DOI)
Available from: 2011-03-03 Created: 2011-03-03 Last updated: 2017-12-11Bibliographically approved
2. Suicide-Related Crimes in Contemporary European Criminal Laws
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Suicide-Related Crimes in Contemporary European Criminal Laws
1997 (English)In: Crisis, ISSN 0227-5910, E-ISSN 2151-2396, Vol. 18, no 1, p. 35-47Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Describes suicide-related penal legislation in contemporary Europe, and analyzes and relates the results to cultural attitudes toward suicide and to national suicide rates. Data were obtained from 42 legal entities. Of these, 34 have penal regulations which—according to definition—chiefly and directly deal with suicide. There are 3 main types of act: aiding suicide, abetting suicide, and driving to suicide. The laws vary considerably with regard to which acts are sanctioned, how severely they are punished, and whether any special circumstances (e.g., the motive) can make the crime more serious. Various ideologies have inspired legislation, including religions, the euthanasia movement, and suicide prevention. There are some cases in which neighboring legal systems have clearly influenced laws on the topic. However, the process seems mostly to have been a national affair, resulting in large discrepancies between European legal systems. The laws seem to reflect public opinions: countries which punish the crimes harder have significantly less permissive cultural attitudes toward suicide. The cultural and normative elements of society seem to be connected with its suicide mortality.

Keywords
brott, dödshjälp, Europa, lag, självmord
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-6578 (URN)10.1027/0227-5910.18.1.35 (DOI)
Available from: 2011-03-09 Created: 2011-03-03 Last updated: 2017-12-11Bibliographically approved
3. The decriminalization of suicide in sweden
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The decriminalization of suicide in sweden
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-6905 (URN)
Available from: 2011-03-18 Created: 2011-03-18 Last updated: 2017-06-26Bibliographically approved
4. The importance of culture for suicide morality: a discussion of Durkheim and Parsons
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The importance of culture for suicide morality: a discussion of Durkheim and Parsons
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-6907 (URN)
Available from: 2011-03-18 Created: 2011-03-18 Last updated: 2017-06-26Bibliographically approved

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Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik

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