Emile Durkheim Suicide

In order to attempt to deter a possible recruit of suicide terrorism, these recruits would need to look at the big picture and realize that in order to create a lasting impression they could accomplish a whole lot more in the living form. Instead these suicide groups create a lasting impression of the martyrs

Most people would assume that with the higher rates of suicide that more people would understand suicide and ways to help prevent it and yet the numbers just keep rising. Symbolic Interactionism can be used to describe how our society views suicide and why suicide is an all too common escape from life. Some of the prominent causes of suicide are pain, loneliness, rejection, abuse, deep sadness, guilt, depression, helplessness and most of all hopelessness. Although most of the time our society as a collective does not see that a person is suffering from these problems until it is too late. When people take their own lives, family members and peers see this act as being selfish. It’s often hard for people who do not suffer from a mental illness to understand why people who do have them act the way they do. A majority of people blow off mental illnesses because they think that someone might just be acting a certain way for attention or don’t actually see the real problem. In some cultures suicide can be a rewarding sacrifice. For example, when people make a heroic sacrifice for the benefit of their community. In the United States, we don’t necessarily understand how sacrificing a person can be beneficial to the society, but to the other cultures it’s something that can be highly

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess different sociological explanations of suicide. (21 marks)

Throughout this essay, we will be looking a Durkheim’s analysis of suicide and whether his ideas on suicide were right in his time, and whether they are still relevant in today’s society. Emile Durkheim described ‘suicide’ as a term “applied to any death which is the direct or indirect result of a positive or negative act accomplished by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result” (Durkheim, Suicide: a Study in Sociology, originally published 1897, 1970). Positive acts were acts that were undertaking with the intention to produce death. Negative acts were actually the distinct lack of survival acts undertaken, with the knowledge that without these acts, death would be the result. As far as Durkheim was concerned, although suicide itself is a very individual act, the reasoning behind suicide was due to predominantly social factors (Durkheim 1970, p44). Suicide was sociological, not psychological. His research was based not on the personality traits of those who had committed suicide, but instead at the suicide rates of different countries compared to the social factors that link the countries together (Durkheim 1970, p40).

Over the past decades suicide terrorism has confirmed its effective tactic and it is seem to be developing and growing movement. Terrorism is designed to cause panic within people, communities and countries but also to gain the publicity through media. Suicide terrorism, more than other forms of terrorist activities is presenting determination and dedication both of dying by individual terrorist as well as the desire to kill innocent people. Suicide terrorism is an attractive tool for terrorist activities with guarantee media publicity with the international dimension. The aim of the attacks is to draw attention of governments, international organisations and

However, as Durkheim attempted to restrict this definition to suicide being actions intended to result in loss of life, many disagreed with him (3). He then decided to search for a new definition of suicide. Digging deeper, he filed through cases deemed suicide that included actions of heroism such as a father jumping in the path of a bullet for his son. Such cases reveal a situation in which death is not desired by the individual but is nonetheless an inevitable consequence of the actions taken. This sort of suicide, according to Durkheim, should be known by any other name under the same broad term. Suicide can be divided into smaller categories. The first subcategory defined by Durkheim is Egoistic Suicide. An individual who commits a suicide of this distinction is considered to feel detached from society and thus separated from life’s meaning. He further explains by saying, a society with a focus on human interaction and involvement produces a value on the individual’s existence and contribution. If the society lacks human interaction and involvement, a low value is placed on an individual’s existence and contribution. Thus, Egoistic Suicide occurs when an individual has placed a low value on

Durkheim’s theories and work on suicide classified the phenomenon into four types; Egoistic, Altruistic, Anomic and Fatalistic (Ritzer Pg 200-202). Durkheim’s concept of social integration ties into egoistic suicide as it

Did it surprise you that suicide bombers tend not to be psychologically unstable or that they are not mainly motivated by religion? How do the facts and findings reported in this article conflict with our usual cultural understanding of terrorists and suicide bombers?

Durkheim does not see egoism, altruism, anomie and fatalism as types of suicide, but types of social structure that highlight the presence or lack of integration and regulation. It must be stressed that this excess/lack of integration and regulation are not seen as direct causes of suicide, rather Durkheim sees a number of voluntary deaths in society as inevitable; integration and regulation are merely prophylactic to suicidal impulses, which when taken to excess or dramatically reduced, fail to act as a preventative, and so suicides occur. This clarification is an important strength of Durkheim’s theory: it allows the biography of the individuals who kill themselves to vary, while still explaining underlying pressures/lack of to explain their deaths, and the varying suicide rates between groups.

Terrorism is a difficult issue to understand and grasp for many people. What is even more difficult to understand is what drives an individual to become radicalized to the point of joining a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts. While there is not specific criteria or a “cookie cutter” approach to understanding what motivates and radicalizes an individual to participate in such atrocities, there are however, several psychological and behavioral factors that have been common among these individuals. The following paper will outline some of the psychological and behavioral factors that attribute to an individual’s radicalization and eventual willingness and even perhaps

So, the thought of receiving a compensation gives young individuals the inspiration to pursue such actions in order to have recognition and repayment. Such as, getting immediate recognition in their countries, for instance, author Gregor Burce demonstrates that “A suicide trainee stated “My social status was greatly enhanced. I got a lot of respect from my acquaintances, and from the young people of my village (Burce, "Intrinsic and external factors and influences on the motivation of suicide attackers", 2016).” Doing such actions can bring the emotions of pride, satisfaction, respect, and acceptance from their community for doing something so heroic. Additionally, the attackers are treated as if they are role models so they are gifted with presents and celebrations held for them in their local communities. Although, these individuals choose to commit to suicide terrorism for substantial social status they also do it because of the financial gain their families could

Although the main focus will be on suicide attacks, the essay will also mention other forms of self-sacrifice, such as hunger strikes, that some terrorist groups have used. Before presenting the arguments, however, I will give a brief explanation on what suicide terrorism is considered to be. Suicide terrorism Although general belief is that suicide terrorism is quite a modern phenomenon, it is a method that has been used since ancient times, from Samson in the Old Testament to the Sicarii and Assassins in the Middle Ages and Muslim groups fighting against colonial forces during the 19th century (Stanciu, 2007).

According to Durkheim’s theory, society can play a part in suicide rates due to strenuous social change which lead to unclear norms in a community. When this emotional strain leads to suicide, Durkheim would explain this as anomic suicide. First Nation groups experienced this during the time of residential schools. Aboriginal people were forced to rapidly change their ways

Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a purely individual decision but French sociologist Emile Durkheim recognized that the phenomenon had a social dimension. He believed in the influence of society on the individual and that if anything can explain that relation, it is suicide. His use of the data of suicide, not specific cases and reports, to study the societal trends reveals his true subject of study: society as a whole and its role in the individual experience. Durkheim uses the study of suicide via the quantitative methodological approach as a tool to study society as a broader whole.

In countries where poverty is high but the index of development is low, this will obviously engender an important number of unemployed young people. Some of them feel hopeless in their motherland with no expectations of jobs, getting married, Etc. Consequently, the sense of belonging, the love of country and the world disappear and instead desperation emerges. The only way they find to escape their miserable conditions and ending their pathetic life is IS as human bomb. In fact, they believe perpetrating suicidal acts guarantee a better future for family members of a suicide attacker, since IS deposit an important amount of money to them. In addition, he is convinced that to go to heaven and worthy of respect after leaving this world. Furthermore, according to this kind of “victims”, violence will be effective, and help to change injustice. It’s sort of an another way to believe that violent means, justify the ends. Feeling significant after being nothing is not only in the