Among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development signed countries, South Korea leads with the highest rate of suicide. More than fourteen thousand South Koreans took their own lives in 2012 (Brown). During the years 2009 and 2010, a total of nearly thirty thousand people committed suicide. These thousands of suicides are often caused by issues within the social structure, almost unreachable standards of South Korea and other miseries. South Korea’s people consider suicide a growing and major problem of their society and culture and take many initiatives to aid in the possible saving of many lives. Laws and regulations have been passed to restrict and decrease suicide possibilities and results. The country has taken several actions to reduce the number of suicides the nation experiences. However, South Korea’s strict social attitude and structure is the root of the country’s nation-wide epidemic of suicide.
A societal competition in South Korea has enticed a widespread choosing of the most tragic last resort – suicide. Despite their rapidly growing economy, South Koreans are continuously pitting themselves against each other for social- and economic-related reasons. These factors are something citizens of the nation deliberately allow themselves to become obsessed with. Being ‘better than another’ and ‘achieving more success than another’ is especially important in the male gender who commit more suicide than females (Victoria). Not reaching a certain amount of success or falling into debt are characteristics one can inherit that can ultimately lead to a dangerous and lethal result. South Korea also has the highest number of female suicides in the world. One of the many reasons is suspected to be the alleged “imposs...
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Suicide displays wide variation in race, gender, religion, and socioeconomic lines. Males are three to four times more likely to commit suicide than females (Moore, Recker, & Heirigs, 2014). By studying suicide and their triggers we can isolate issues in society and address them accordingly. That is a reason we need to know which changes are making more impact on individuals the rapid or slow ones and how they are affecting individuals’ acceptance within their groups?, Is technology advancement part of the problem? How is society facing suicides and what has been done to slow down the suicides rates? Which could be the lowest level where we can teach about reasons to commit suicide? By answering these questions I believe that more data can be collected to understand reason individuals commit suicide and society is deal with the
Durkheim, Emile. Trans. John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Suicide; A Study in Sociology. The Free Press, New York. 1987. Pgs. 297-325
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A mother finds her 17 year old teenage son hanging from the rafters of their basement. To hear of this occurrence is not rare in society today. Every 90 minutes a teenager in this country commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The National suicide rate has increased 78% between 1952 and 1992. The rate for 15-19 year olds rose from two per 100,000 to 12.9, more than 600 percent. (Special report, Killing the Pain, Rae Coulli)
Minois, Georges. History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1999.
The New York Times. (2013, May 2). Suicide rates rise sharply in U.S.. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html
Seattle, WA has a high rate of suicide and depression. Also Korea, which is my home country, is ranked on 2nd place on suicidal rate in the world. According to Korean Governmental Statistical Office, the leading cause of death of teenage group to 30th is a suicide which tells it is a big problem. Unemployment, depression, and social isolation are common reasons of committing suicide. Also in some of the East Asian countries, the hard pressure from studying and getting good grade for the college is one of the biggest reason of the suicide in teenage group, and that’s the reason why a lot of students in Korea committing or thinking about a suicide after the high school senior’s final test. Most of people kill themselves because of environmental factors so most of them think that they are victim who are damaged by social problems but I believe that committing suicide should be a criminal offense.
Suicide is a sad story many people are reluctant to approach. But when somebody nearest to them kills themselves, they feel the compelling guilt of trying to understand the motive behind the death. It is a complex and rather devastating subject. Many who kill themselves can never come back to tell us what happened and why it did. Suicide takes an emotional toll on it's survivors and wreck havoc in the wake of the surrounding victims. What causes suicide is a probing series of many theories, and yet not one definitive answer. The prevention of suicide is also difficult to pinpoint, but only because the intent is unknown. The importance of researching the motives of the suicidal is essential to modern humanity as a whole, because in the era we live in, suicide rates are climbing faster than ever. Understanding the driving force behind suicide is what can help the field of social science to save the conscience mind of many people from self-destruction - and save their lives, and the emotions of their loved ones.
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
As this society undergoes many changes in the social aspects, the suicide rate is also on the rise. Japan now has the third highest suicide rate in the world, around sixty percent higher than most western countries. Most of these tragic deaths are committed by school kids and young adults. Some old customs are still in place and are making it difficult for these kids to express how they feel and receive the help they need. This tragedy is not only affecting children, the leading cause of death for men from ages twenty to forty four is
Emile Durkheim, is the founder of sociology who conceived many theories, in the concept of suicide and its relationship with society. Durkheim’s book “Suicide” makes a distinction between suicide and suicide rate in relation with society. Durkheim conducted his research in a longitudinal study from various countries. He studied the suicide number and compared the mortality rate of different regions. His case study of suicide, explored the differences of suicide rates between social, economic and religious groups. He found people felt intertwine of social surrounding of social factors that produce suicide and, different social classes emerged from the discovery.
Suicide has become a critical, national problem and the extent of this is mind-boggling. Suicides have been proven to be one of the leading causes of death among college students. According to Webters dictionary “suicide is the act killing oneself on purpose”. It derived from the Latin sui, meaning “self”, and caedere, which means “to kill”. But this is just a definition, because an actual suicide holds different meanings to people such as tragic, shocking, a relief, a cry for help, a shame, heroic, the right choice, punishment, revenge, protest, anger, a mistake, desperate, hurtful and many more. But why do people, like college students who have their entire future ahead of them, simply give up hope and turn their heads away from life and commit suicide. There are several causes of suicide, recent incidents of suicide on college campuses, warning signs from a suicidal. I blame the Constitution and the United States law for not taking any hard initiative on the subject of suicide. I also impose the choice of the media, which is reflecting and portraying suicide towards a wrong direction. However most important questions remain: can the growing epidemic of suicide be solved, what are communities doing about it and what can they do to help?
“Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain” (I-10). Ending a life is a big step in the wrong direction for most. Suicide is the killing of oneself. Suicide happens every day, and everyday a family’s life is changed. Something needs to be done to raise awareness of that startling fact. Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly.