Emile Durkjeim and Teenage Suicide
Emile Durkheim and Teenage Suicide
I chose to write about Durkheim's theories on suicide. Although I do not completely agree with all of them, I will discuss what my text says they are and what I perceive them to be, as well as the significance of teenage suicide in today's America.
Fiction: Only "bad" kids who have the wrong friends and bad lives commit suicide. Fact: Kids who have the right friends and a bright future in front of them commit suicide. Fiction: Music, movies, and other forms of media do not influence teenagers in any way, shape, or form. Fact: Music, movies, and other forms of media are influencing teenagers to commit suicide. Every year more than 4,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 commit suicide and another 400,000-attempt suicide; the number of suicides may be even higher because families who report the suicides as accidents or murders (Klagsburn 16) hide many suicides. "Suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, trailing only accidents and homicides" (Worsnop 371). Over the past four decades, teenage suicide rose a staggering 200 percent (Waters 49). "Of all the suicides studied among people under 25, nearly two-thirds of them were committed with guns, teenagers who committed suicide by hanging themselves ranked second, and poisoning ranked third" (Colburn 5.)
Most of Durkheim's work on suicide was published in his third book, Suicide. It was a very important book because it was a serious effort to establish empiricism in sociology. This empiricism would provide a sociological perspective on a phenomenon that was previously psychological and individualistic. He proposed three major forms of suicide, some with subdivisions. These three forms of suicide were egoistic, altruistic, and anomic. There is a wide range of causes that drive teenagers to commit suicide. These causes can vary from depression to drugs to school and family pressures. According to Francine
I chose to write about Durkheim's theories on suicide. Although I do not completely agree with all of them, I will discuss what my text says they are and what I perceive them to be, as well as the significance of teenage suicide in today's America.
Fiction: Only "bad" kids who have the wrong friends and bad lives commit suicide. Fact: Kids who have the right friends and a bright future in front of them commit suicide. Fiction: Music, movies, and other forms of media do not influence teenagers in any way, shape, or form. Fact: Music, movies, and other forms of media are influencing teenagers to commit suicide. Every year more than 4,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 commit suicide and another 400,000-attempt suicide; the number of suicides may be even higher because families who report the suicides as accidents or murders (Klagsburn 16) hide many suicides. "Suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, trailing only accidents and homicides" (Worsnop 371). Over the past four decades, teenage suicide rose a staggering 200 percent (Waters 49). "Of all the suicides studied among people under 25, nearly two-thirds of them were committed with guns, teenagers who committed suicide by hanging themselves ranked second, and poisoning ranked third" (Colburn 5.)
Most of Durkheim's work on suicide was published in his third book, Suicide. It was a very important book because it was a serious effort to establish empiricism in sociology. This empiricism would provide a sociological perspective on a phenomenon that was previously psychological and individualistic. He proposed three major forms of suicide, some with subdivisions. These three forms of suicide were egoistic, altruistic, and anomic. There is a wide range of causes that drive teenagers to commit suicide. These causes can vary from depression to drugs to school and family pressures. According to Francine