The State of Our Health - Men's Health: Suicide

Around 30,000 people commit suicide every year. To give this number some dimension, consider that around 42,000 people die each year in motor vehicle accidents. There is a "National Strategy for Suicide Prevention." It was published in 2001. But the initiative bridges the last two administrations under the leadership of the Surgeon General.

Nonetheless, in a book on social trends, one is impelled, first of all, to emphasize that the incidence of suicide is very much a wave- like phenomenon statistically. The death rate (expressed as deaths per 100,000 population) goes up and down over time. In 2000 the rate was 10 deaths per 100,000. In 1900, it was 10.2. It rose to a peak of 17.4 in the Depression year of 1932. It was 10 in 1944, during World War II and under 11 in 21 years of the 20th century. Suicide appears to be a perennial phenomenon. Having said that, some observations.

In 1999, when the death rate was 10.7, 29,199 people committed suicide. Of these 80% were males. Most suicides now — and as far back as measurements extend — are males. Suicides also take younger lives. This is illustrated in the graphic on this page. The two ten-year age groups that have the most suicides are those aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 44. Data graphed are for males in 1999.

Male Suicides by Age, 1999

Suicide has long fascinated students of human nature and behavior. Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of the subject — one of the founding acts of the science of sociology — came from the pen of the Frenchman, Émile Durkheim. His 1897 work, Suicide, made a strong case for the interaction of social forms — not least social integration — and individual behavior. Durkheim's observations should be pursued in their detail, but here a very rough summary must suffice.

Studying data from a number of nations, Durkheim observed that the individual is protected from suicide when his or her integration within the social community is well in balance with the moral regulation provided by that community. He noted that high suicide rates are associated with men more than women, professionals more than laborers, unmarried status more than married status, Protestant faith more than Catholic or Jewish. His theories, interestingly enough, are still modern enough to explain suicide bombers, for instance.

Durkheim identified four types of suicide.Altruistic suicides are those who have lost their identity to the group and can be persuaded to give their lives for a group's goals — suicide bombers, religious cult suicides. In these cases, integration is high and social regulation very dominant. Fatalistic suicides are people who are very strictly regulated but do not share the views of those who dominate them: prisoners, inmates of concentration camps, and also, by extension, those subject to an incurable disease. Egoistic suicides are people who have lost the meaning of life but lack support mechanisms — religion, marriage, children, the security of a stable family, economic means. Many suicides during the Depression appear to have been caused by sudden loss of wealth. Finally, Anomic suicides are people who have ample means, much talent, and great freedom — yet lack sufficient moral regulation to channel wealth or talent.

Thus far with Durkheim. No one, needless to say, has the last word on the mysteries of life and death, but some of these concepts are useful in explaining the patterns shown by the statistics. One of these is the low suicide rate of women, whether married or single. Women, based on Durkheim's theory, would appear to be more socially integrated, males more aberrantly individualistic.

The experience of the African American community also appears to support Durkheim's general thesis. The black suicide death rate has been consistently lower than that of the white population as a whole. This is shown for males in the main graphic of this presentation and for both sexes below. The black experience is usually worse than the white. Here is the reverse of that.

The black population, large portions of which are concentrated in densely settled urban enclaves, appears to provide more cohesion and support to its members in a number of different ways: extended family groups living together, a greater struggle for economic survival which limits anomie, the important role that churches play in the acculturation of black youths, probably even the "life of the street" which causes more social contact and sense of community.

Interestingly, one study published by the Centers for Disease Control (see source note), observes that in the 1980 to 1995 period, the suicide rate among black youths aged 10 to 19 years of age increased from 2.1 to 4.5 per 100,000 population. In 1980, white youths in the same age bracket had a 157% higher rate than blacks; by 1995, the difference was only 42% higher. The CDC's comment is telling.

In explaining the closing of the gap, the agency says:

One possible factor may be the growth of the black middle class. Black youths in upwardly mobile families may experience stress associated with their new social environments. Alternatively, these youths may adopt the coping behaviors of the larger society in which suicide is more commonly used in response to depression and hopelessness.

This is not a cheerful note. As the life of the African American community comes more and more to resemble that of the white community, the suicide rate may become more and more the same.

Suicide Death Rates per 100,000 Population-Both Sexes

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System. Online. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/default.htm, May 29, 2002. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States. 1975. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Suicide Among Black Youths — United States, 1980-1995." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 20 March 1998.