Using material from Item A and elsewhere, Assess the usefulness of different sociological approaches to suicide.

There are many different sociological views which approach suicide. Positivists think that suicide can be explained through officical statistics and there are distinct reasons for every suicide. Interpretists think that there is a reason behind every suicide and this can be found out through qualatative studies. Realists think that there are further strutural causes behind suicide. Each view is useful in explaining relationships between suicide however, none provide solid reasons behind it. The positivist approach to suicide is to treat it as an objective fact. Durkheim used suicide to demonstrate that a scientific sociology was possible. In Durkheim's view, our behaviour is a social fact, social forces found in the structure of our society. Through the use of official statistics he studied facts that shapes behaviours. Suicide rates for any society were constant, when rates changed they could be attributed to other factors, different societies were seen to have different suicide rates and within society, different social groups had different suicide rates. Two factors, integration and regulation determine the type and level of suicide. Integration, refers to the extent of attachment towards others whereas regulation is how much an individual's actions are kept in check by norms and values. The interpretivist approach directly contrast the positivist one and seek to focus on the meanings of suicide for those involved. Douglas criticises Durkheim's use of official statistics as they are not accurate and recommends qualitative studies to discover the real rate of suicide. The statistics are a result of a coroners label and thus it is not trustworthy in his view. This is suggested in Item A where cases are decided on "the basis of probability". Douglas further seeks to find out the meaning of the suicide and criticises Durkheim for implying that the meaning is fixed. His view can be criticised as there is no reason to believe that a sociologist would be better at interpreting a dead persons meanings than a sociologist. Douglas is inconsistent at times, suggesting that sometimes official statistics are a product of the coroners opinions and other times we can really discover the causes of suicide. This further implicates that question that revolves around a death that was it a suicide in the first place? There is no further information to go on other than the coroners. Ethnomenthodologists argue that social reality is a construct and that it is created by common sense knowledge and that this is used to make sense of the world. Atkinson disagrees with Douglas saying that it is impossible to find the real rate of suicide. Instead,

we should seek to uncover commonsense theories and assumptions that coroners use in reaching a verdict such as the mode of death. Atkinson argues against Douglas by saying that we can never know the real rate of suicide since we would have to know the meaning that the dead gave to their deaths and therefore it is impossible to find out the real rate. He further criticises Durkheim's use of official statistics in that they too are interpretations by specific individuals. This is evident in Item A, which states that there is a difference between jurors of England and Denmark - with English jurors must find evidence of "definite suicidal intention" However, this view on the world can also be used against him. If all we have are social interpretations of the world then the ethnomenthodologists views are no more than interpretations themselves. Although, they accept that this is the case, unlike Positivists who see their interpretations as Law. Realists seek the structural causes of suicide.Taylor agrees with positivists in that we can find a reason behind suicide but also agrees with interpretivists in suggesting that official statistics cannot be used.. He classifies the underlying structures of meaning that cause suicide and gives a scale on which the suicide is directed - at one's self or at others. Taylors theory is based on interpreations of the deads meaning and again, there is no way of knowing if these are correct. His studies are unlikely to be representative of suicides in general. However, there are corroberations between Durkheim and Taylor. The idea or certianty and self directed suicides reflect durkheims notions of fatalism and altrusitic suicides. Taylors ideas are useful in explaining patterns of suicide and also deals with both failed and sucessful attempts. In conclusion, sociological perspectives are useful in catergorising how suicide happens and the correlations between certians types of suicide. But, this does not reflect the causation of the deaths of people. All the sociologcal views that have been looked at are merely interpreations of what people think have happened and thus the only way to find a true reason behind suicides is through personal documents and close family members.