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Emile Durkheim's Definition Of Suicide

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Durkheim’s definition of suicide: suicide is applied to every case of death which results directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act, carried out by the victim himself, knowing that it will produce this result. – Emile Durkheim. Durkheim was of French origin and a very successful sociologist who was born on April 15th 1858. He was a key persona in the study of sociology and took a particular focus on suicide which undoubtedly had a profound impact on contemporary society today; he asked the question regarding the rates of suicide in different societies. In 1897 Durkheim revealed a breath-taking book named ‘suicide- a study in sociology’ that would prove very influential regarding his theories based around suicide and how the background of various societies may be held at the helm of the cause of suicide. In his study he looked at three countries; France, England and Denmark and investigated the rates of suicide per every million. Durkheim has shown that, for each social grouping, there is a unique tendency to suicide that can be explained neither by the "organic-psychic constitution" of individuals or …show more content…

Individualistic suicide is the result of a person having poor links to social backgrounds. Single, divorced, childless and widowed people were found to be more likely to commit suicide than those who were married or had children. Individualistic suicide cases were found among religious societies. Durkheim studied that the rate of suicide is not as high among Catholics and Jews as among Protestants. This is due to Protestantism allowing “free inquiry” to a larger extent than Judaism or Catholicism. In Protestantism there is more freedom of the mind because it has fewer common beliefs and leads to higher suicide rates as the individuals lack a sense of order and direction. ( a study in sociology,

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