Investigating suicide

Definition: Act of intentionally killing oneself through one’s own effort or with the assistance of another.

Significance: Suicide is one of the leading causes of unnatural death in the world, particularly among teenagers. It is a phenomenon that affects every nation as well as every culture. The strategic use of suicide in warfare and terrorism has become commonplace in the past century, and the topic of assisted suicide has become a source of great controversy.

Suicide has been a part of human society since history has been recorded, and the ethical implications of the act have been debated since ancient times. The scholars of ancient Greece addressed the legitimacy of suicide; Plato rejected the act based on a religious rationale, but Socrates disagreed and ultimately committed suicide. Under the Roman Empire, many soldiers committed suicide after defeat in war or to avoid capture by enemies. Later, Christianity altered views on suicide to mirror the sacrifices made by Jesus Christ. Specifically, Christians typically honored those who committed suicide as a sacrifice for a larger cause, such as in war, but they held in contempt those who used suicide as a way to escape the law or for other reasons deemed cowardly.

Suicide has been used as a strategy in warfare throughout history. During World War II, the Japanese sent what were termed kamikaze pilots to fly bombs into US ships. The North Vietnamese also used suicide tactics against American soldiers during the Vietnam War. Moreover, although suicide is at odds with Islamic law, some Muslims use suicide attacks on their enemies under the notion of martyrdom warfare. The difference between suicide and martyrdom is that martyrdom is undertaken for a higher purpose, whereas suicide is undertaken to escape the hardships of life.

Across cultures, suicide remains a problem in the twenty-first century, with concerns increasing about suicide among teenagers. The Centers for Disease Control reported suicide as the tenth leading cause of death for Americans in 2013, responsible for over forty-one thousand deaths that year. Moreover, international debates are ongoing regarding the morality of assisted suicide, or euthanasia, with strong views being expressed on both sides of the topic of the “right to die.” As of 2014, three states had passed legislation allowing terminally ill adults to receive prescriptions for lethal doses of medications from their doctors.

Investigating Suicide

Investigations regarding suicide typically take two forms: research that seeks to explain the phenomenon of suicide and investigations into deaths that appear to have been self-inflicted. Attempts to understand and explain suicide have been undertaken at both micro and macro levels. Macro-level research on the topic has centered on the impact of the social structure on suicide rates across cities and even nationally. Theorists such as Émile Durkheim have attempted to show correlations between factors such as war periods and the Great Depression on suicide rates in the United States. In contrast, micro-level research has attempted to understand individual-level factors that may lead to suicide. For instance, researchers have examined the relationship between suicide and the social pressures placed on teenagers as well as that between suicide and the family problems encountered by adults. Suicide researchers are careful to separate attempted suicides in which the persons survive from completed suicide; many contend that the two are completely separate phenomena with completely separate causes.

Forensic pathologists are typically the members of the criminal justice system who oversee investigations into deaths that are suspicious or unnatural. In the United States, coroners or medical examiners (depending on the state) conduct investigations of unnatural deaths and order lab tests and autopsies on the bodies. However, law-enforcement officers and criminalists often collect data at death scenes that can be just as valuable or even more valuable than autopsy and toxicology test results in determining whether deaths are attributable to suicide, accident, or murder. When an automobile fatality occurs, for instance, police officers may need to conduct exhaustive interviews with other drivers and then with the family and friends of the deceased in order to rule out suicide. At the very least, police investigators have a critical role in collecting the evidence that forensic pathologists use in making their determination.

In late 2014, a murder-suicide that took place at a hospital in New Hampshire also highlighted the role that social media can potentially play in understanding modern suicide cases. Not long before a man had walked into the hospital and shot his wife in her bed before taking his own life, he had posted a message on Facebook that left little doubt as to why he had committed this act. Cyberbullying has been on the rise since the Internet became more advanced and accessible, leading investigators to link a number of suicides, especially those committed by teens, to emotional distress suffered from negative interactions occurring on, or exacerbated by, the Internet.

Because of the myriad circumstances in which unnatural or suspicious deaths may occur, forensic pathologists typically have wide-ranging expertise. They routinely have to make decisions regarding the likely ways in which many kinds of wounds were inflicted on bodies, including bullet wounds, stab wounds, wounds caused by blunt force trauma, and burns. Moreover, when suicide is suspected, pathologists sometimes focus on the life histories, psychiatric data, and other information on the backgrounds of the deceased. Such psychological autopsies can aid in the determination of cause of death, but it should be noted that the use of this technique has been greatly exaggerated in popular media depictions of the work of pathologists.

Bibliography

Arsenault, Mark, Matt Rocheleau, and Jim Kimble. "Facebook Post Presages Murder-Suicide in N.H." Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media, 30 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Barone, Emily. "See Which States Allow Assisted Suicide." Time. Time, 3 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Durkheim, Émile. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Trans. John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. 1951. Reprint. New York: Free, 1997. Print.

"Facts and Figures." American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Amer. Foundation for Suicide Prevention, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Gorsuch, Neil. The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006. Print.

Holmes, Ronald, and Stephen Holmes. Suicide: Theory, Practice, and Investigation. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2005. Print.

Joiner, Thomas. Why People Die by Suicide. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005. Print.

Picton, Bernard. Murder, Suicide, or Accident: The Forensic Pathologist at Work. London: Hale, 1971. Print.