Durkheim’s study on suicide is viewed as a well-known paradigm in sociological studies. The purpose of this essay is to explain how Durkheim was able to show the social causes of suicide through the analysis of statistics across several countries (Hassan, 1998). Durkheim chose to study suicide because in the 19th century sociology was not entirely recognised as an area of academic interest (Finchman, Langer, Scourfield & Shiner, 2011). In addition to this, Durkheim wanted to show that suicide was not just an individual act and that sociology played a part. This essay also intends to explore how Durkheim was able to
Sociology: the systematic study of society and social interaction (p.6) Why study sociology? -- Brown v. Board of Education (p. 19) Sociological Imagination: An awareness of the relationship between the individual and the wider society; how individuals examine their own situation in relation to society (p.6) * How might one use the sociological imagination to examine the likelihood that somebody smokes * How might one use the sociological imagination to explain why somebody prefers country music over rap? * How might one use the sociological imagination to explain divorce? * How might one use the sociological imagination to explain why many more men survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami than women? Read: “Please
He concluded that there is significance in the rates of suicide to the probable social cohesion of the individual in society. The data collated lead Durkheim to categories suicide into four major groups which implied the degree to which the individual was integrated into society or the degree to which society has imposed on the individual. The possible groups that an individual who committed suicide would fall are Egoistic, Altruistic, Anomic or Fatalistic. Consequently, even though Le Suicide’ pioneered social research and is considered a classic in sociological study, its success, is heavily criticized. Critics believe that the study is littered with what statisticians describe as Ecological fallacy.
The survey’s purpose is to study people in their more natural settings. The existing sources methods’ purpose is used whenever there is suitable data that is available. Now that we have discussed the different types of research methods, I am going to discuss the research methods that are used in an article that I researched on suicide. I will then identify the methodological orientation that best reflects the methods that were used in the article. The article I researched, discussed suicide by jumping, and explains how certain researched helped to find the data that implies that “[suicide by this method tends to be higher in cities, city states, or countries that have extensive high-rise housing.
In police culture, it is more powerfully stigmatized and viewed as a “coward’s way out” (Dahl, 2010). Dr. John Violanti highlights this perspective: "...police officers traditionally subscribe to a myth of indestructibility; they view suicide as particularly disgraceful to the victim officer and to the profession" (1995). What are the facts, impediments to treatment, and potential warning signs of police officer suicide? What is being done in our police departments to address this issue? What are potential solutions?
Gordon Brown, former prime Minister, warned ‘frail and ill people would be under pressure to end their lives if the suicide laws were changed.’ It would also risk pressure on the vulnerable people in society who may feel their existence a burden to others. A survey showed that 70% of disabled people would feel more pressure to kill themselves if the suicide law was changed. There is also the issue of people’s wishes fluctuating. Would it be making it too easy for people to end their lives and be legally helped to end their lives? Assisted Suicide is one of those controversial topics where everyone has different opinions, and everyone thinks their opinion is right.
Durkheim first began to work on the problem of suicide in 1888 when he offered a series of public lectures on the topic while he was at University of Bordeaux By 1897, Durkheim had published Suicide as a book length study and this constituted his third major sociological work Promoted from Bordeaux to Paris There are several reasons why Durkheim took up the theme of suicide when he did FIRST, by 1850 there was a spike in the suicide rates throughout Europe and many felt that this was associated with the development of industrial society Industrialization had advanced individualism, accelerated social fragmentation, and weakened the social bonds tying individuals to social groups outside themselves SECOND, industrial society made the economy dominant over other institutions This served to place the pursuit of self interest and private gain stage center over the collective purposes of society, accelerating social fragmentation As economic gain became the private affair of the individual, social separation and social isolation increased This set loose egoistic forces in which individuals withdrew to themselves and to the private ego in order to pursue their private economic interest THIRD, with the development of industrial society Durkheim found that the social bonds that once tied the individual directly to groups outside themselves began to decline As individualism accelerated, gaps formed between the individual and the points of social contact These gaps reduced the attachments to the family group, the religious group and the national group * Durkheim thought that the gaps that formed in industrial society were the result of declining integrative functions an that this showed up in the higher suicide rate of industrial society FOURTH, Durkheim discovered that the suicide data of different societies pointed to a direct link between higher
However, Durkheim rejected this theory for two reasons; one, there is no concrete proof to show the existence of monomania, second, mental functions are completely dependent on one another, and insanity is present in one area, then it should also be present in another as well, that is if insanity affects one function it should affect at the other functions as well. Therefore the concept of monomania, where an individual displays normal behavior in every other action but shows absolute abnormality in just one particular action is unacceptable and therefore the idea that insanity causes suicide does not hold true according to Durkheim Suicide And Normal Psychological Conditions , Heritance: Durkheim then turns his attention to normal psychological conditions such as race, nationality and heredity to which psychologists attributed suicide to. He believed that to sociologically define race was a difficult task yet he studied the theory given by Morselli regarding race and its effects on suicidal tendencies. Morselli identified four groups on the basis of suicidal rates, put them in descending order and concluded that the Germans had the highest rate of suicides, then came
Why Poverty leads to Crime – A Research about the “Social Structure Theory” By Daniel Rottlaender CJ200013 Professor Gene Overall 10/12/2014 Abstract: The purpose of this research is to explain and proof the Social Structure Theory, which says that poverty leads to crime. The first part of the paper contains an explanation what the Social Structure Theory is as well as the different schools of thought the theory provides. The second part of the paper is supposed to proof the theory by using statistics and theories why poverty leads to crime. The final paragraph provides a summary and a recommendation what the government should do in order to decrease crime rates. In order to write my essay I used different types of research.
Assess the usefulness of official statistics to our understanding of social problems. Illustrate your response with sociological arguments and evidence. To assess the usefulness of official statistics to our understanding of social problems, I will first look at what official statistics are, I will then look at crime and suicide as two examples of social problems. I will look at how both Positivists and Interpretativists use these statistics and how useful each of these sociological approaches find them. Official statistics is the name given to the numbers of crimes reported to or unveiled by the police themselves, which lead to a conviction, caution or are dealt with in some formal way by the law.