Analysis of an important sources related to the previous research - Term Paper Example

Durkheim firmly believed that sociology is the ‘science of institutions’, which aimed to delineate the structural "social facts" (Durkheim, 1895, 13).  He opined that social science should be holistic in nature and appeal, meaning that sociology should be the study of various incidents from the lives of common men which can be associated with the society at large, instead of just limiting oneself to studying the actions of just one individual. It is this very aspect that prompted me to choose Durkheim’s book Suicide (first published in 1897), for my research paper.

The book enables one to comprehend the fact that suicide by a certain section of the population (young male population) at regular intervals reflects a grave social problem. It is thus necessary that we view the various instances of the young male suicides in UK together as one incident, and examine this incident from a broader social perspective, with a holistic angle. Durkheim believed that “society is a unity which displays characteristics that cannot be reduced to those of its component individuals” (Giddens, 2).

If we wish examine this theory in the context of the large number young males that commit suicide both in UK and worldwide, we will have to review the entire scenario from a new perspective and search for certain fundamental reasons that are driving all these young men to commit suicide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 90,000 adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years commit suicide every year, while more than 4 million in this age range attempt suicide, worldwide (WHO, 2001), while in UK suicide forms to be the “The [second] biggest killers of boys and young men are suicide (10%)” (Boseley, Drink and drugs a leading cause of young deaths, 2009).

It is seemingly impossible that such large numbers of young people committing suicide worldwide are doing so for the mere sake of some isolated personal reasons. So