An Overview Of Suicide At International Level

Literature Review

An overview of suicide at international level

Suicide is an issue that affects all societies worldwide, regardless of ethnicity, class, sexual orientation or gender. According to Krug et al. (2002,185) an estimated number of 815 000 people died as a result of suicide in the year 2000 around the world. Translated, this means that there was one death about 40 seconds. According to an article released by the World Health Organisation titled Preventing Suicide (2014), suicide is the 15th leading cause of death worldwide. It also says that after traffic accidents, among young adults between the ages of 15-29 years of age, suicide accounts for 8.8% of all deaths globally. This is something that should worry everyone, because those

Egotistic suicide occurs when people fell completely detached from society. In this case, the degree of social integration is low. What usually happens is that these people are the integrated back into their society, but when this does not happen, individuals turn to egotistic suicide.

Altruistic suicide occurs when the individual is part of a social group, and the level of social integration is too high. The individual feels that taking their own life will benefit the society at large. An example of this type of suicide, are suicide bombers who kill themselves in the name of religion.

When there are times of high levels of stress in society, or changes in society and subsequently everyday live, individuals may turn to anomic suicide. When this happens, there are no social regulations and an individual may feel like they do not have the tools to set goals, and life becomes too much for them.

Fatalistic suicide occurs when there is extreme social regulation. Individuals find themselves living under extreme rules. They would rather take their own lives, than endure conditions because they feel like they have lost their sense of

(2005). The Prevalence of Suicidal Phenomena in Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Population-Based Studies. The American Association of Suicidology. • Breault, K.D. (1986). Suicide in America: A Test of Durkheim’s Theory of Religious and Family Integration, 1933-1980. University of Cincinnati.

• Health 24 (2011). Suicide in SA Increasing.

• Schlebush, L. (2012). Crime, Violence and Injury in South Africa. Cape Town: MRC.

• Bantjes, J., Kagee, A. (2013) Epidemiology of suicide in South Africa: Setting an agenda for future research.

• Shilubane, H., Ruiter, R., Bos, A., van den Borne, B., Ja,es, S., Reddy P. (2013) Psychosocial Correlates of Suicidal Indeation in Rurual South African Adolescents.

• Malan, M. (2014) Concern over rate of teen depression and suicide.

• Alonso-Betancourt, O. (2012). Suicide – A global overview and focus on the South African Situation, Walter Sisulu University.

• Kruge, E., Dahlberg, L., Mercy, J., Zwi, A., Lozano, R. World report on violence and health.

• World Health Organisation (2014). Preventing Suicide: A global