1. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Durkheim ‘Le Suicide’ (1897)
Some of the words have fallen off. Please rescue them.
Durkheim‟s Suicide, written in the ___ _____________, is seen as a classic of
_______________research. Positivists believe that society can and should be studied
_______________. They argue that sociology can use the logic and methods of the
natural sciences, such as observing _______________ and developing laws of
___________ and effect to explain these correlations.
Durkheim chose to study suicide as a way of showing the validity of _____________
as a discipline and the usefulness of positivist methods, even for something as
personal as suicide.
Durkheim argued that there are _______________ patterns to human behaviour,
even when it comes to suicide, and we can discover causal ________________ for
these patterns. He believed that if he could prove that there were predictable
patterns in suicide, and show the social causes of these patterns, he would have
proved sociology was a ____________. Durkheim argued that human behaviour is
caused by ____________ ____________. These are social forces in society (such as
norms, religion etc).
Positivist scientifically explanations
19th Century Science social facts
Patterns Sociology Observable
Cause
Suicide rates as social facts
What are the 3 features of social facts according to Steven Lukes (1992)?

2. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Durkheim compared suicide rates for different societies,
times and groups within societies. What regular patterns did
he find?
How does this show that suicide cannot be just the result of individual motives,
according to Durkheim?

3. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Give an example of each of Durkheim‟s suicide types:
Which types of suicide are more common in modern industrial societies? Why? What
about traditional societies?

4. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Positivist Responses to Durkheim’s Study
How does Halbwachs (1930) improve on Durkheim‟s findings? What about
Sainsbury (1995)?
Gibbs & Martin (1964) argue that Durkheim‟s concept of integration is not
measurable or testable. How is their idea of ‘status integration’ more easily
measurable?
How else has Durkheim been criticised by Positivists?

5. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Interpretivist Approaches to Suicide
Interpretivists argue that Positivist methods are inappropriate for studying human
behaviour. For Interpretivists, behaviour isn‟t predictable or subject to laws of cause
and effect, but is simply the result of each individual‟s subjective interpretations and
interactions with others.
Interpretivists are wary of official statistics, such as suicide rates, for two reasons.
Firstly they argue that stats are socially constructed, i.e. made by society, and as
such may not be hard facts at all. Secondly, they point out that stats tell us nothing
about the reasons for behaviour, they merely count how many times it occurs.
Douglas – The Social Meanings of Suicide (1967)
Douglas criticises Durkheim in two ways. Make notes on these below, then check
your notes with a partner:
The use of suicide statistics:
Actors’ meanings and qualitative data:

6. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
What research methods should we use to study suicide, according to Douglas?
Douglas and the different meanings of suicide
Transformation of the self- Suicide as self-punishment to show repentance for
repentance suicide wrong-doing
Transformation of the soul Suicide as a means of escaping from the misery of
– escape suicide life
Revenge suicide Suicide to attach guilt and blame to those who
wronged them
Sympathy suicide Suicide as „cry for help‟ and sympathy, often found
among attempted suicide, who hope they may be
found in time
Looking at the above table, what circumstances and clues could you use to work out
the meaning of any individual suicide? Think about how this would work for each of
Douglas‟s types.
Outline two criticisms of Douglas‟s work:

7. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Baechler ‘Suicides’ (1979) – Douglas’s methods in action.
Baechler developed Douglas‟s work through a
number of in-depth case studies. He argued that
suicide is a way of responding to and trying to
solve a problem. He identifies 4 main types:
1. Escapist suicides: a) flight from an
intolerable situation; b) response to
grief/loss; c) self-punishment
2. Aggressive suicides: a) vengeance
suicide to make another feel guilty or look
bad; b) crime suicides – taking others down
with you; c) Blackmail suicides to make
others treat you better; d) appeal suicides –
I need help!
3. Oblative suicides are use to achieve something; a) sacrifice to save
another; b) transfiguration – achieve a more desirable state, e.g. join a loved
one in the afterlife
4. Ludic suicides involve taking deliberate risks which might lead to death; a)
ordeal – proving yourself to others through bravery; b) game – risks „for the
hell of it‟ e.g. Russian Roulette
However, in conclusion, Baechler denies that suicide can ever be explained in terms
of external factors. Not everyone whose spouse dies, business fails, or who is
Protestant kills themselves, so for those who do, personal and internal factors
must also play a vital part.
How would we be able to tell which suicide was which – what methods might each
use?

8. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Realist Approaches – Steve Taylor ‘Suicide’ (1989)
Taylor takes a different approach to
both positivists and interpretivists.
Like the interpretivists, he argues
that suicide rates cannot be taken as
valid. For example, in a study of 32
people who had died after being hit
by London tube trains, just over half
the cases resulted in a verdict of
suicide, even though there was no
conclusive proof of suicidal intent.
Taylor found that coroners saw
factors such as a history of mental
illness as indicators of suicidal intent
and this increased the likelihood of a suicide verdict.
However, like the positivists, Taylor still believes we can explain suicide. He believes
we can discover real patterns and causes, although unlike positivists, he does not
base his explanation on suicide statistics. Instead he adopts a realist approach. This
aims to reveal underlying structures and causes, which though not directly
observable, can explain the observable evidence. He uses case studies to discover
the underlying structures of meaning that cause suicide.
Why might Durkheim be seen as more of a realist that a positivist, according to
Taylor?
Taylor dispels a number of myths about suicide:
1. People who talk about suicide do not kill themselves. They do, and most
people who commit suicide give others warning of their intention. Whether the
suicidal live or die depends on the responses of those around them.
2. People who kill themselves are mentally ill. There is no evidence to support
this idea unless the term is widened so far as to be virtually meaningless. In
some cases, suicide is clearly a rational response to an unliveable situation.
3. Even if prevented, the potential suicide will try again. Among survivors,
first opportunity re-attempts are very rare. The most significant factor is the

9. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
extent to which the failed suicide brings about changes in the individual's
situation.
4. Manipulative suicidal acts deserve little, if any, sympathy and concern.
Such a response may increase the likelihood of another attempt.
Taylor also argues that we can make no clear distinction between 'genuine' and
'fake' suicide attempts. Few suicides are so well planned as to make death certain,
and similarly few are planned to ensure survival. In the vast majority of suicidal acts,
the outcome depends largely on chance. This observation, that the majority of
suicides are matters of risk that involve both the desire to live and die, has important
implications for theories of suicide, since traditional theories have assumed that all
serious suicidal acts are aimed at death.
Finally, Taylor develops a typology (set of categories) of suicide, which takes into
account two important factors: the degree of certainty/uncertainty people have
about themselves and others, and the level of attachment to others.
Taylor’s Typology of Suicide
Inner-directed suicide Other-directed suicide (about
(about self and identity) communicating something to
others)
Certainty Submissive suicide – life is Sacrifice suicide – others
over and others cannot help, made life intolerable and they
e.g. arising from a terminal are left with no choice but to kill
illness or death of a partner. themselves, e.g. partner goes off
“I give in” with another lover. “You killed
me”
Uncertainty Thanatation suicide – Appeal suicide – others have
Unsure whether to live or die, made life difficult, and this is a
and others can‟t help. cry for help to save them from
Gambling with death and death, e.g. an attempt to win
perhaps surviving it. “Should I back a partner. “Do you want
live?” me to live?”
Using the above table, suggest what circumstances might tell us whether a suicide
was certain or uncertain, directed towards others or the self:
Outline one advantage and two disadvantages of Taylor‟s study:

10. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Activity
Descriptions of suicide cases:
A. James had high aspirations for his company but went bankrupt during the
recession. In despair he drowned himself by jumping overboard from his yacht.
B. Jennifer was devoted to Nigel, her boyfriend since she was 14. He jilted her at the
altar and she took an overdose three days later, leaving a note saying she still
loved him and hoped they could be together again.
C. Brian was a loner who was sure he had no place in the world and nobody
respected him. He walked into an aerobics class with a machine gun and killed ten
people, before shooting himself.
D.Jeremy was an officer in the SAS who volunteered to go on a very dangerous
mission, from which he knew he would most likely not return.
E. Brenda was unemployed for three years after twenty years of hard work. She had
used up all her savings and had to sell her house. She made 489 unsuccessful job
applications. She took her own life in an isolated spot and her body was only
found two weeks later
Read through the brief descriptions of cases above, then:
1.Score each of the cases on a scale from 1 (least) to 5 (most), in terms of how
much sympathy you feel for the person. Is there a consensus among members of
the class?
2.Use the different types or meanings of suicide identified by Durkheim, Douglas and
Taylor to classify these five cases.
3.Do any of the cases fit more than one type? (e.g. Durkheim‟s fatalism and Taylor‟s
idea of certainty).
4.What conclusions do you draw about the usefulness of the different typologies?

11. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
You are the Coroner!
In groups, study the police investigation notes (over the page) for 8 cases
unexplained death. In each case, you must reach a unanimous verdict.
Your possible verdicts are:
a) Suicide – definite intent to take own life
b) Accidental death
c) Natural causes
d) Misadventure – when someone else has entirely accidentally killed them,
without intent or criminal behaviour.
e) Open verdict – we don‟t know!
Case No: Verdict:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

12. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Police Reports
Please see enclosed police investigation reports summarising details of recent
unexplained deaths. We await your verdict.
Case One:
Female aged 35. Justice of the Peace. Car in high-speed collision with motorway
bridge. Weather good. No other cars involved. Car apparently in good mechanical
order. Death happened on evening after being dismissed from job for fraud, having
been told she would be prosecuted.
Case Two:
Male aged 18. Drowned after setting to sea in small boat stolen from its moorings.
Sea calm and boat found floating uncapsized. Post-mortem showed he had drunk
the equivalent of 4 pints of beer. Had recently learned that his A level results were
too low to admit him to medical school. Father and older brother are doctors.
Case Three:
Male aged 27. Mental patient. Died after swallowing small pieces of broken glass
over a period of weeks. Had long history of swallowing objects.
Case Four:
Male aged 63. Farmer. Died by hanging. Was given to melodramatic gestures,
suicide notes and threats to kill himself with noose hanging in barn. Strangulation
occurred after manger on which he had been standing collapsed. Death followed
series of family rows over farm management. Left suicide note.
Case Five:
Female aged 58. Long history of depressive illness and alcoholism. Inmate of hostel
for mentally ill. Had recently ended love affair with another inmate and had declared
intention to kill herself. Had disappeared from the hostel and returned very drunk.

13. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Died from overdose of sleeping tablets. It was established that the tablets had been
hoarded by her lover for whom they had been prescribed.
Case Six:
Female aged 42. She had made several attempts before. She poisoned herself with
narcotics in her home during the night. There were no signs of precautions against
survival. On the contrary, her housekeeper was at home and might easily have come
into the bedroom before it was too late. She was found dead, clutching the
telephone. Shortly before she took the poison she had a talk with her doctor over
the phone, telling him of her depression and anxiety. She had been in the habit of
doing this, with or without suicidal threats. On many previous occasions the doctor
had come to her house during the night and managed to calm her down. That
particular night he tried to do so by talking to her over the phone.
Case Seven:
A widow aged 85 was found gassed in the kitchen of her cottage, where she had
lived alone since the death of her husband. Rugs and towels had been stuffed under
the door and around the window casements. At the inquest, the few people who
knew her testified that she always seemed a very happy and cheerful person.
Case Eight:
A schoolboy aged 17, who normally went out shopping with his parents at a certain
time on a particular day, refused to do so on the day he died and was left in the
house alone. When his parents returned, they found him hanging from the banisters
on the landing. During the previous two years he had been undergoing regular
psychiatric treatment for depression, and was known to be currently worried about
what he would do when he left school. At the inquest a witness testified that he and
the boy had been planning a climbing holiday together, and that a book on climbing
had been found open on the deceased‟s bed at the time of death.

14. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Atkinson – Ethnomethodology & Suicide
J. Maxwell Atkinson (1978) takes a different interpretivist approach to Douglas,
known as ethnomethodology. Ethnomethodology argues that social reality is simply
a construct of its members. We create reality using a stock of taken-for-granted
commonsense knowledge. The sociologist‟s job is to uncover what this knowledge is
and how we use it to make sense of the world.
Atkinson accepts Douglas‟s point that official statistics simply reflect the constructs
or labels coroners give to deaths, but he does not accept Douglas‟s view that we can
„get behind‟ these statistics and uncover the „real‟ rate or meaning of suicide. For
this, we would need to know the real meanings the dead give to their deaths, which
is impossible. Therefore it is pointless trying to discover the „real rate‟. All we can
study is how people make sense of their world. With suicide this means studying
how the living come to classify a death as a suicide, accident etc.
Are suicide statistics accurate or inaccurate, according to Atkinson?
What methods did Atkinson use to study how deaths get categorized as suicides?
What four types of evidence are most commonly used by coroners?
How does Barry Hindess (1973) criticize Atkinson‟s approach?

15. Trinity Sociology Unit 4 Crime & Deviance with Theory & Methods
Atkinson conducted further research with his mates Kessall and Dalgaard. They were
suspicious that consistent variations in suicide rates between countries were the
result of coroners‟ judgments, so Atkinson et al investigated decision making about
suicide in England and Denmark. Four English coroners and five Danish coroners
were asked to decide on 40 cases. The Danes were much more likely to reach a
suicide verdict than the English. Atkinson et al attribute this to the fact that in
Denmark a suicide verdict can be used when „on the balance of probability‟ suicide
seems likely, whereas in England coroners have to find evidence of „definite suicidal
intention‟. They argue that the consistently higher suicide rates in Denmark are due
to the different rules for reaching a verdict, rather than to people in Denmark being
more likely to take their own lives.
Identify and explain four reasons why sociologists should be very careful about suing
official statistics on suicide as a record of the real number of suicides in society.