Comments on Obsolete: Reporting suicide compassionately.

In Emile Durkheim's book on the subject he finds a...

2008-02-20T01:23:00.000+00:00

In Emile Durkheim's book on the subject he finds a definite link between newspaper reporting of suicides and numbers of suicides. I haven't got it here, but the increase in suicide numbers once others get publicised is drastic.

The other obvious cultural example would be Japan,...

2008-02-20T00:30:00.000+00:00

The other obvious cultural example would be Japan, where it's never been a taboo or religiously condemned as it is in the West. Wikipedia suggests that Lithuania has the highest suicide rate per 100,000 of population. Japan comes in a surprising 8th.

The media though isn't going to get into waffle about statistics, especially when it's the young that are committing suicide and as we all know, that's not what they're supposed to do. These clusters do occur, but the media certainly isn't helping by shoving it down everyone's throat, regardless of their duty to investigate and report or otherwise.

There is, however, something in the National Stati...

2008-02-20T00:06:00.000+00:00

There is, however, something in the National Statistics data that suggests that South Wales has an upward trend in suicide while the national trend (including the rest of Wales) has been downwards for several years. This would explain the Bridgend 'cluster' (just the media noticing one part of this with a 'human interest' angle and the internet to blame) but there's evidence of an issue here, although the chances of the press spotting it are subzero.

There can be cultural reasons for high suicide rates - at one point Hungary was particularly bad. What fixed it was better mental health care, apparently, as the reduction coincided with the post-communist upheavals and associated economic problems and unemployment.

Suicide rates are way way worse in Scotland, which has the entire top ten per 100,000 population for men and three of the top ten for women. The worst place for both is Glasgow.