Police Suicides Revisited

ABSTRACT: Between January 1, 1934 and January 1, 1940, 91 New York City policemen committed suicide. Dr. Paul Friedman, in the only previously published account describing this special group, speculated that the high suicide rate for those years was due, in part, to the turbulence caused by changes in New York City's political administration attendant to Tammany Hall's fall from political hegemony as a result of the 1933 election of Fiorello H. La Guardia. The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the original police files and case histories, now residing in the Zilboorg-Friedman Archives, and to offer new comments and speculations concerning these police suicides. Involved in this examination will be (a) the use of the “psychological autopsy” in assessing several equivocal deaths; (b) the use of statistical techniques to analyze both previously unpublished archival material and recently acquired police suicide data from other cities in America and England; and (c) a discussion of the impact of Tammany Hall politics on the police department, including an assessment of the effects of the La Guardia election in 1933.     

Systematic Review of the Impact of Suicides and Other Critical Incidents on Railway Personnel

The review summarizes current scientific knowledge on the effects of railway critical incidents on railway workers and the associated risk and protective factors. Diagnosable traumatic reactions sometimes occur after a serious incident. However, the most frequent effects are long‐term impairments that do not meet diagnostic criteria but can still profoundly affect people's lives. Risk factors that can increase the negative effects of incidents include characteristics of the employee, coping mechanisms, the type of incident, and the support and care received. Prevention and intervention programs should consider the diversity of reactions to develop relevant support programs.     

Suicides in the Nazi concentration camps

On the basis of psychiatric interviews with 69 former prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, this paper describes the circumstances, motives, and ways of committing suicide in the camp. The interview made it clear that thousands of prisoners perished by suicide. The number of committed suicides was larger than that of attempted suicides. The most frequent types of suicide victims were prisoners of Jewish descent, foreigners, white-collar workers, and old people. The most common motives of suicides were depressive reactions; anxiety; somatic illnesses; the threat of death; emotional motives; loss of emotional support; beatings and tortures; and patriotic and altruistic motives. The most common methods of committing suicide were flinging oneself onto the electrified wires surrounding the camp, hanging, poisoning, cutting one's veins, and drowning. There were also cases of mass suicides, chiefly in the women's camp. Suicides committed from patriotic or altruistic motives testified to the fact that human beings were able to preserve their dignity even in the face of death.     

Hospital Suicides: Lawsuits and Standards

ABSTRACT: Based on personal experience as an expert witness in litigation following Hospital Suicides, the following recommendations are made: every hospital should have a Suicide Prevention Committee which establishes written guidelines after surveying security areas and talking with staff and patients. Reasonable treatment requires that each patient be evaluated for suicide risk, that a treatment plan be formulated, and that staff follow the treatment plan according to the hospital's own policies.     

Suicides in active-duty enlisted Navy personnel.

Cases of completed suicide among U.S. Navy enlisted personnel occurring from 1974 through 1985 were identified and compared with similar rates in the U.S. general population and in the U.S. Army. Although the Navy suicide rate was the lowest of the three groups, this rate increased between 1976 and 1983. This was in contrast to national and Army trends during the same period. Young white males in the apprentice/recruit and blue-collar occupations had the highest rates of completed suicide in the Navy. Recommendations for prevention and treatment are discussed.     

An Inquiry into Relationship Suicides and Reciprocity

Few theories on suicide have been grounded in the norm of reciprocity. There is literature on suicide, however, describing motivations such as retaliation and retreat which can be interpreted as modes of adaptation to the norm of reciprocity. We propose a reciprocity‐based theory to explain suicides associated with relationship problems. Employing a content analysis of suicide notes, we tested the theory, finding evidence of exploitation, exploiter guilt, retaliation, and retreat as motives for committing relationship‐based suicide. Reciprocity‐based note writers were more likely to have used alcohol or drugs in the hours prior to committing suicide, and they were also more likely to have made their intentions known beforehand. Implications for future research as well as for suicide prevention are discussed.     

Suicides around Major Public Holidays in South Korea

A dip and peak pattern of suicide around major public holidays has been found in developed countries and explained by the broken promise effect. Focusing on two major holidays in South Korea (New Year's Day and Thanksgiving Day, both on the lunar calendar), replication of the dip and peak pattern was done by analyzing individual information on all suicides from 1997 to 2014. The replicated pattern revealed the most vulnerable group to be married men aged 50+ in nonmetropolitan areas in 2006–2014. Families, friends, and policy makers can use these findings to save the vulnerable.     

Nonresident Suicides in England: A National Study

Little is known about the numbers and characteristics of people who travel away from home before dying by suicide. Therefore, this studied attempts to identify the sociodemographic characteristics, location, and method of suicide in people who died distant from home, in a national sample. Data were collected on all English suicides and a patient population; nonresident suicides resided in one Health Authority but died in a different one. Twelve percent of suicides were nonresident and features of these included: young age, social adversity, and severe mental illness. In conclusion, both individual‐ and area‐based factors are likely to contribute to suicide away from home.     

Joint Custody: Parental Problems and Satisfactions

Joint custody, the total care of children by each parent part of the time, enables both parents to be "custodial" parents after divorce. Increasingly it has become a solution to custody problems, allowing both parents major involvement in their childrens' lives as well as freedom for themselves. This research addresses joint custody from the parents' perspective, exploring the salient issues. The problems and satisfactions are discussed, and the sex differences are highlighted.     

Seasonality of Violent Suicides in the Athens Greater Area

The aim of the study was to ascertain suicide seasonality in the Greek population and to associate this seasonal variation with age, sex, and suicide method. Studying seasonality can be of help in establishing a public health policy, related with suicide prevention. This is an epidemiologic study based on forensic evidence. We studied the deaths caused by self‐injury (trauma), namely deaths by violent suicide (not self‐poisoning). Statistically significant suicide seasonality was established with a peak in May. This seasonal variation is attributed mainly to males. As for the method, suicide by hanging peaks in June and by shooting in April. It was also observed that seasonality for individuals above the age of 45 peaks in early May.     

Whole Lives and Good Deaths

This article discusses two views associated with narrative conceptions of the self. The first view asserts that our whole life is reasonably regarded as a single unit of meaning. A prominent strand of the philosophical narrative account of the self is the representative of this view. The second view—which has currency beyond the confines of the philosophical narrative account—is that the meaning of a life story is dependent on what happens at the end of it. The article argues that the connection between these two views is more tentative than often supposed: philosophical narrativists that see life as a single unit of value and meaning nonetheless provide grounds for arguing that the end of life is not the best and may be a particularly bad time to approach and intervene in the matter of how well one's life as a whole has gone.     

Gender and the Cultural Construction of Good and Bad Suicides

Some cultures distinguish two or more types of suicide which are evaluated differently. The more acceptable or esteemed ones are often not equally accessible to everyone within the same society. This article focuses on gender differences in the cultural construction of suicide options, and on the exclusion of women from superior options. The analysis is based on ethnographic and historical data from Native Americans of the Great Plains, Muslim societies in Southeast Asia, and tribal societies in the Amazon area of South America.     

Custody Evaluations: Critical Contextual and Ethical Considerations

The area of custody evaluation is fraught with anxiety and tension for parents and children as well as therapists. This article encourages the use of a set of lenses that explores individual and family members' relationships within a variety of contexts. To advance the reader's understanding, a model employing various levels and domains will be presented and described. A variety of critical ethical issues, and challenges often encountered by therapists are also examined.     

Suicides in the developing world: case study from Pakistan

There are no official data on suicide from Pakistan, a conservative South Asian Islamic country with traditionally low suicide rates. Both suicide and attempted suicide are illegal acts, as well as socially and religiously condemned, making research in this area difficult. Recent reports suggest an increase in suicide rates. In this study, police data from the Sindh province were examined to provide a unique picture of trends of suicide over 15 years (1985-1999). During this period there were 2,568 reported suicides (71% men, 39% women; ratio 1.8). The lowest number was 90 in 1987 and maximum was 360 in 1999. Poisoning by organophosphates was the most common method followed by hanging. This study, although limited in scope, provides evidence of an increase in suicide rates in Pakistan, from one data source. There is urgent need for further research on suicide in Pakistan; interventions for suicide prevention in the country can then be planned.     

Epidemiologic Characteristics and Trends of Fatal Suicides among the Elderly in Taiwan

Taiwan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, especially among its elderly. The epidemiologic characteristics and trends of the surging elderly suicide rates from 1993 to 2003 are described, with a special emphasis on the risk groups, the methods used in suicide, and their geographical variations. Data on annual mortality for persons over 65 years of age with external cause‐of‐death codes E950–E959 were obtained from the Death Certification data file provided by the Department of Health and used in the analysis. The suicide rate for each 5‐year age group over 65 years old increased during the 11‐year period. Elderly males had the highest suicide rate and experienced an increased rate of 49% during the decade. The average suicide ratio between elderly males and females was about 2:1. Never‐married males had the highest age‐adjusted as well as sex‐ and marital status‐specific suicide rates, and showed an increased rate of 66% over the 11‐year period. Geographical variations in suicide rates were significant, with the lest urbanized eastern Taiwan having a higher rate than other regions. Hanging, strangulation, and suffocation were the most used methods for committing suicide by the elderly, but their use had decreased from 63% to 54% during the decade; but jumping off a building and drowning increased significantly. Variation in suicide rate among months was not significant. With the increase in the elderly suicide rate, more governmental and societal interventions are needed to alleviate this social and human problem.