AQA A2 Sociology Crime and Deviance

1. Altruistic (suicide committed for the benefit of others) 2. Anomic (where rapid change is occurring e.g. this can occur when man goes through extreme changes in wealth) 3. Egoistic (where people regard their individual happiness as very important. E.g. Catholics have a lower rate than Protestants because they are more tightly integrated by shared ritual) 4. Fatalistic (in extreme, usually oppressive, situations where people lose the will to live. e.g. slaves and prisoners)

Method of gathering statistics from different societies and comparing the patterns to help explain social differences between the societies.

A term used by Taylor for suicide attempts where the person is not certain whether they want to die or not, and 'gambles' their live.

The extent to which people feel they 'belong' to a society or social group.

Durkheim was the first to use multivariate analysis, enabling him to correlate suicide rates with other social factors e.g. religion, martial status. Without this, it would not be possible to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

(DURKHEIM) i) In modern societies, individualism is more important, causing egoistic suicides, while rapid change produces anomic suicides. ii) In traditional societies, the group is more important, causing altruistic suicides. Individuals have rigidly ascribed statuses, causing fatalistic suicides.

Later positivists criticised Durkheim for not operationalising his concepts satisfactorily. Others criticise the unreliability of his stats: in the 19th century, autopsies were rarely performed, and many states did not collect stats systematically.

He takes an interactionist approach and is interested in the meaning of suicide for the deceased (zmarły), and the way coroners label deaths. He rejects Durkheim's use of stats as he claims they are social constructs rather than social facts. E.g. Socially integrated people only seem to have a lower suicide rate because they have relatives etc to persuade the coroner to bring in a different verdict.

He produces a classification of suicide based on the actors' supposed meanings. But why should we believe Douglas is any better than coroners at interpreting a dead person's meanings?

He argues that social reality is simply a construct of its members. He uses qualitative methods: court documents, conversations with coroners. He concludes that coroners have a commonsense theory about the typical suicide e.g a suicide note/threats; mode of death e.g. hanging' location and circumstances e.g. shooting in a deserted lay-by; life history e.g. mental illness.

He accepts the positivist view that we can discover the underlying causes of suicide. (he uses case studies) 1. Submissive suicide e.g. the terminally ill patient who is sure that life is over 2. Sacrifice suicide e.g. a lover's rejection 3. Thanatation suicide e.g. playing Russian roulette 4. Appeal suicide e.g. taking an overdose hoping the lover finds and saves them.