Social Deviance
Journal Entry 10
The World Health Organization (WHO) works with member states to develop rates from the member states on the human mortality and morbidity. These rates are split by gender and the WHO provides information about the mid-population data. The African region has provided no data and there are regions such as Latin America that provide little or scarce data to the WHO. Around 1.53 million people will commit suicide by 2020, leading to a suicide roughly every 20 seconds. An attempted suicide is 10 to 20 times higher than that statistic and it is estimated that an attempted suicide occurs every second. Suicide rates differ between the sexes and the different age groups. Eastern Europe has the highest suicide rate for both men and women. Island countries, like Japan and Cuba, have statistically high suicide rates. Central Asian countries with ties to the Soviet Union and the Eastern Mediterranean region have low suicide rates. Male suicide increased by about 50% from 1950 to 1995 while female suicide increased by about 33% These increases in suicide can be seen as a result of the collapse of the USSR. However, the article states that the increase of suicide could be due to the individual countries let go by the USSR are inflating these suicide rates by reporting them individually. It may be tied to the increase in reporting countries, an increase from 11 to 62 that may have increased the suicide rate, especially since the countries were mainly those with high suicide rates. The elderly population are more likely to commit suicide but suicide is a major source of death among young people. Suicide is now becoming more prevalent in the population between 5 to 44 than those that are 45+. Around 55% of suicides are committed by individuals between the ages of 5 to 44 while those 45+ make up the other 45%. Muslim countries have the lowest suicide rates due to the belief that suicide is forbidden. Hindu and Christian countries follow after Muslim countries. Atheistic countries had the highest rates of suicide with Buddhist countries following them. Males tend to commit more suicides the females and this ratio is highest among Christian and Atheist countries while the lowest ratio is in Hindu countries.
This is an article that is supportive that religion appears to reduce one's risk to commit suicide. This may be due to the individual's belief that they are tied to something, specifically something that may punish them. Christian and Muslim communities share a belief that suicide is a sin. The strength of this belief varies between sects but overall, it is an idea that may cause a suicidal individual to not commit suicide as they are afraid the consequences they foresee occurring in the afterlife. For Atheists, this belief is not a concern for them and does not lead them to consider the spiritual consequences of suicide as they don't believe in those consequences. The article does not discuss the culture surrounding