Sociologist Keith Hawton, argues that there has been a great amount of adolescent suicides that have gone unreported due to: 1. The relative rarity of the event in this age group may make those responsible for determining the cause of death unlikely to consider suicide as an explanation.
2. Even if suicide is considered a possibility, the widely held belief that small children rarely commit suicide may mean that there is a greater tendency for death in this age group to be mistakenly reported as accidental. Subsequent suicide statistics will therefore confirm the belief that suicide is uncommon in children.
3. Those responsible for reporting suicide may be, consciously or unconsciously, concerned to protect other individuals from distress that a verdict of suicide may cause. Parents are particular liable to feel not only grieved but guilty about the suicide of a young son or daughter and the death may be reported as accidental or of undetermined cause in order to protect their feelings.
4. The predominant religious beliefs of a country or society are also likely to be important. For example, the Roman Catholic Church regards suicide as a mortal sin, and so officials in predominantly Catholic countries such as Italy and Ireland may be less likely to believe that a person has committed suicide than in predominantly Protestant countries.
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