The Causes of Suicide |
Suicide
Suicide is the most common method of killing in the United States, as it exceeds homicide . Seventy-nine percent or 39,255 of suicides were male in 2022. Only a little over 20% of suicides are committed by women. In 2022, 49,449 people killed themselves. Of these suicides, only 3,825 suicides were black. Since the Afro-American population is thirteen percent, it s evident that blacks are a good deal less inclined to suicide than whites. Emile
Durkheim’s study of suicides found that Protestants are more often suicidal
than Catholics, and Jews have the lowest rate of suicide. Because
Catholicism is far more organized than Protestant Christianity with its numerous
denominations, Catholics are more secure in their relationship to their
religious community than is true of Protestants. Therefore Catholics exhibit a
lower suicide rate than Protestants. Jews in Durkheim’s study had a far lower
suicide rate that Christians because the Jewish community in Europe was so
pressured and isolated that Jews were far more integrated into the group than
was true of Christians. Hence the lower Jewish suicide rate. Suicide
is also related to altruism, best illustrated by the kamikaze pilots of the
Japanese Air Force, who deliberately dove their planes into American ships
knowing that they would die for the Emperor and the Japanese nation. There is
also egoistic suicide. This consists of killing oneself on the grounds of
rejection by a lover or ejection by a group who at one time allowed the suicide
to be a member. Shunning is a good example. Finally there is anomic suicide, as
in the case of depression arising from disorganization of the entire community
leading to a loss of belonging. Prisoners
often commit suicide because of the horrible pressure placed on inmates. There
are also the “suicides by cop.” These are people who kill others in the
expectation of being killed by the police, an outcome the killers seek. Old
people kill themselves because they have lost their work environment and are
despised by the community because of their age. Shalom u'vracha. |