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THE ENLIGHTENING PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY. Durkheim’s analysis of the relationship between suicide rates and social relations at the end of the nineteenth century is a classic and still highly informative example of the sociological perspective at work. DURKHEIM ’ S FINDINGS.
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THE ENLIGHTENING PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY • Durkheim’s analysis of the relationship between suicide rates and social relations at the end of the nineteenth century is a classic and still highly informative example of the sociological perspective at work.
DURKHEIM’S FINDINGS • Some categories of people (men, Christians, the unmarried) have higher rates of suicide than others (women, Jews, the married). • Why? Because people who are weakly integrated into social groups are more likely to take their own lives.
DURKHEIM’S U-CURVE As the level of social solidarity increases, the suicide rate declines. Then, beyond a certain point, it begins to rise again. At one extreme, anomic suicide occurs in very low solidarity settings. At the other extreme, altruistic suicide occurs in very high solidarity contexts, where norms tightly govern behaviour.
IMPLICATIONS OF DURKHEIM’S ANALYSIS OF SUICIDE Social forces exist as a distinct level of reality: • They are external to individuals. • They constrain individual behaviour.
SUICIDE IN CANADA TODAY • Youth suicide, rare in Durkheim’s time, has been rising for almost half a century in Canada. • Suicide rates for men remain considerably higher than those for women.