The Emergence of Male Suicides in the UK - Dissertation Example

?The Emergence of Male Suicides in the UK from a Private Matter to a Social Issue by the UK Media in the 1990s M1 Project Introduction "I believe suicide is one of the most under-covered and mis-covered issues on our landscape. Unfortunately, there is little meaningful discussion on the topic in newsrooms and a paucity of guidance for journalists." Dr Robert Steele, Ethics Group Leader, Poynter Institute, Florida, USA. The above quote is indicative of the emergence of suicide as a social problem and the relevance of media portrayal of the subject. From the 1990s and extending into the new millennium, male suicide in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) has grown significantly and this M1 project will explore the emergence of suicide from the confines of the private sector into a social issue. The effects of the portrayal of male suicide in the prominent UK publications, The Times and The Guardian, will be presented, detailing how media coverage of this subject has affected the suicide rates of male youth in order to set up the research question that will be examined in more detail in the M2 project. I have chosen The Times and The Guardian as the two referential publications for my research because they are both quality publications that have already gone through the process of tabloidization and currently can be relied on to provide accurate, quality information. The public believes they treat current affairs fairly seriously, so, they are important in forming views and peoples opinions. 2 Suicide Defined Establishing a comprehensive definition for what qualifies as ‘suicide’ is quite difficult, since the most common definitions of the word and the technical definition used by the Coroner’s office in England and Wales diverge. The most common definitions of ‘suicide’ are expressed in the following context: a. “The act of deliberately taking one's own life” (Frankish and Jeffereys). b. “An intentional, self-inflicted, life-threatening act resulting in death from a number of means” (Jones). However, while studying the suicide statistics, it must be borne in mind that the official mortality figures on suicide must be approached with a certain level of caution. In a majority of the developed nations, the officially published suicide figures are collected from coronial investigations that take place in cases of unexpected or sudden deaths, and involve post-mortem reports, psychiatric records of the victim, and the social history as denoted by the friends and family, and suicide letters, if any (Sainsbury & Jenkins, 1982). A coronial verdict leaves a large scope for various probability factors, like suicidal behavioural tendencies noticed previously, records of psychiatric problems, associated social events that may have lead the victim to commit suicide, or a suicide note. There are also certain amounts of variations in the certification procedures, as the suicide certification in the UK is based on the coroners’ verdicts that are founded on public inquests; while in Germany, suicide cases are certified only by the general practitioners (Cantor, 2000). Often the problems in delineating suicides like drug overdoses, motor crashes where there was only one passenger (Phillips, 1977), or death by drowning (O’Donnell & Farmer, 1995), makes it difficult for the investigators to arrive at a conclusion (Cantor, 2000). These aforementioned types of deaths are very often termed as accidental (see Figure 2), and owing to lack of any strong evidences, like a suicide letter, the deaths cannot be termed as presumably suicide (however there are differences based on the coroners’ choice). Thus, we find that, due to lack of evidences, suicides may be registered as ‘accidental’ deaths from unknown causes, unlike deaths by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation that are seen as conclusive evidence of suicide (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Deaths from ‘Suicides’ and ‘Undetermined Injury’ in England in 2008 (Gunnell, 6). Here the variations in the processes adopted for suicide certification, as seen in the different countries, have led to questions being raised on the degree of reliability of the available national and global suicide statistics (Rockett & Thomas, 1999). 3 The History of Suicide in the UK Historically, suicide in the UK was either viewed as “wilful self-murder "at the instigation of the devil"” with those that committed suicide being considered "victims" and were viewed as being mentally incapacitated and not responsible for their actions (“Study”). Furthermore, a person that committed suicide in the UK was subject to forfeiture of their property and other assets to the Crown as well as a post-mortem ritualistic public desecration of their body (“Study”). “…self-murderers were denied Christian burials; their bodies were interred profanely, with a macabre ceremony prescribed by popular custom. The night following the inquest, officials of the parish, the churchwardens and their helpers, carried the corpse to a crossroads and threw it naked into a pit. A wooden stake was hammered through the body, pinioning it in the grave, and the hole was filled in. No prayers for the dead were repeated; the minister did not attend” (Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949-1953: Report, 1953, Cmd. 8932, para. 37). Thus, we find Victorian England had a very negative attitude towards individuals committing suicide, forcing the family and friends to treat the incident as intensely private, and often as a matter of shame primarily arising from a fear of social ostracism (Anderson, 250-263). Prior to 1961 and the passing of the Suicide Act, it was illegal to commit suicide in Great Britain and it currently remains illegal to assist another in ending their lives. In England, the society and law have always condemned suicide in any form. In the mid-nineteenth century England, when suicide was viewed as a criminal act, religion also took a strong stand against suicide. As per a 1953 report prepared by the UK government, Prior to the passing of the 1961 Suicide Act, it was a criminal offense to commit suicide, and any person residing in England or other parts of the UK, who attempted suicide and failed, was liable to face prosecution and even imprisonment. For those who succeeded in the act of killing themselves, the family members were mostly likely to face prosecution. In 1961, the government passed the Suicide Act, under which the person who was committing suicide would not be held under criminal offense. However, a closer look will reveal that, by itself this act is extremely interesting and has significance, in the sense, that there are no parallel examples of this kind of law. This act in section 1 created a rule of law, where it annulled the status of suicide as a crime, while under section 2(1) the act states: “A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or attempt by another to commit suicide shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years" (The UK Statute Law Database, Suicide Act 1961). So, according to this law, the principal person who commits or tries to commit suicide does not commit any criminal offense, yet his associates or accomplices (those who in some way or the other had helped him to commit suicide) can be held liable, prosecuted, and imprisoned. This is extremely important when we look at the issue of ‘assisted suicide’ where a terminally ill person is asking for assistance and voluntarily wishes to end their life. The physician, or any other family member or friends, who assists such a person who voluntarily wants to end life, will be held by the law for an act of conspiracy, and the wording of §1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977, which very clearly states that a conspiracy act will come into being if a person who wants to commit suicide comes into an agreement with an associate, and the latter arranges for all the things necessary for the former to commit suicide; thus creating a situation where the associate goes into an agreement of conspiracy: “(a) Will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement...”( The UK Statute Law Database, Criminal Law Act 1977). Investigative methods regarding the prevalence of suicides and deliberate self-harm (DSH) using the stated newspaper references will be employed in order to develop an appropriate research question. The investigation will provide details regarding the background and historical imperatives of suicide and DSH, statistical examinations of male suicidal tendencies, the relevance of the chosen sources to the trends of suicides involving males in the UK, and the methods that will be employed to conduct the research to answer the proposed question. 4 Research Method The Times and The Guardian are quality newspapers that have been around for long time, with The Times being slightly right or centred in their general perspective, while The Guardian is generally slightly left centred. The Times is primarily read by professionals, doctors, and business people and The Guardian is read more by other members of the public sector, like blue collar workers. To prepare for investigation of the research question, prominent UK publications, specifically The Times and The Guardian, will be searched for articles pertaining to the topic of the emergence of male suicides in the UK from a private matter to a social issue by the UK media in the 1990s. To conduct the research, the website for The Times (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) and the website for The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/) will be searched using keyword combinations like ‘male suicide’, ‘male youth suicide’, and ‘all male suicide’ to find articles pertaining to the topic. However, the keyword search of ‘male suicide’ produced 1,109 results on The Times website and 1,763 results on The Guardian website, which means additional sorting criteria will have to be implemented to skim through the results to find the articles that are the most relevant to the topic of the emergence of male suicides in the UK from a private matter to a social issue by the UK media in the 1990s. Although many of these results contain the keywords, they may have nothing to do with the topic and initial search results are sorted by relevance by default. The Times allows searches to be refined by date, (the last seven days, the last 30 days, or a specifically defined date range), the newspaper sections (culture and arts, life and style, comment and opinion, and so forth), region (UK News or World News), publication (The Times or The Sunday Times), or journalist (Andrew Billen, Jenny Booth, Stephen Dalton and numerous others). The Guardian provides options for refining your search according to the date the article was published (the last seven days, the last 30 days, or the year, extending as far back as 1998), section (world news, books, UK news, society, and numerous others), publication (The Guardian, The Observer, or Guardian Weekly), tone of the article (features, comment, reviews, news, blog posts, and others), type (article or document), and writer (Philip French, Peter Bradshaw, Michael Billington, Ros Taylor, and many others). Both of these newspapers have been selected as publications of interest because they have identified male youth suicide as a social problem in the manner that they have portrayed this issue. A total of 40 articles that discuss the harmful consequences of suicide, like the emotional and psychological damage done to those left behind, the economic costs to the country due to the lost revenue when the victim is young and are not able to work until the retirement age of 60, and other relevant angles associated with suicide. 5 Male Youth Suicide Statistics Suicide, though prevalent in the society from the early ages, is currently recognised as an issue of public health concern. At the turn of the century, in 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that globally, an average count 815,000 people committed suicide (WHO, 2001). These official mortality numbers do not reveal the actual number of completed suicides (Sainsbury & Jenkins, 1982), and it is also estimated that DSH is 30 times more common than suicide, although with DSH, there is no direct intention of killing oneself (Jones). DSH is described as an intentional, self-inflicted, non-fatal act commonly induced by physical means, like a drug overdose or poisoning, and there are several hundred thousand cases of deliberate self-harm each year in the UK (Jones). Any form of suicidal behaviour (fatal or non-fatal), tends to create a significant amount of mental and emotional pressure on the family and friends, while from an economic standpoint point, suicidal behaviour also exercises a considerable pressure on the economic resources and the country’s health care (Schmidtke, 1997). Overall, male suicides outnumber female suicides in the UK through all age groups, with most occurring in the age ranges of 22 to 44 and 45 to 54, respectively (Jones). Another important aspect of this public health issue is the fact that, for males aged 15 to 34 suicide is the second most common way for males in the UK to die and about 900 young men take their own lives each year, accounting for about 75% of all suicides in this age group (Bell). Between 1970 and 1998, the rate of male suicides more than doubled and levels reached their peak between 1993 and 1998 (see Figure 2) with young males dying at a rate of five to one compared to women (Bell). Figure 2: Male & Female Suicides, Ages 15-34, in England & Wales, 1993-2006 (Bell) As Figure 1 indicates, male suicides within the indicated age group easily triple the number of female suicides and, in its reports, the WHO observed that more than 90,000 adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years old commit suicide every year, while more than 4 million in this age range attempt suicide (WHO, 2001). The primary difference in the frequency of male suicides lies predominantly in the fact that males are less likely to seek help when they are troubled, repress their emotions, and tend to use methods that are more successful, like hanging, than women, who tend to deal with their emotions better, seek help for their troubles, and prefer methods like overdosing, which are not always successful (Bowcott). Despite the negative figures that indicate a rise in the number of male youth suicides from worldwide reviews, with male suicides in the UK rising from 10 per 100,000 between 1976 and 1981 to almost 20 (Arlidge), the UK has been seeing a gradual decrease in the overall number of suicides among young men (Office for National Statistics (ONS)). In the UK, suicide rates were declining between 1991 and 2007 (see Figure 3), though 2008 again saw a slight increase in the numbers of males over 15 years of age that committed suicide (see Figure 4) (ONS). Figure 3: Overall rates of suicide by various methods: England and Wales, 1968-2005. Figure 4: UK suicide rates in 2008 by sex and age-group, 1991-2008. (ONS). In the graphs in Figure 3, it is evident that the suicide rates for the young male population in England (age group: 15-34 years) reached its peak during the mid-nineties after which there has been a sharp fall in the figures. Women figures peaked during the mid-seventies, after which there has been a persistent decline in their mortality numbers arising from suicides (Biddle, Brock, Brookes, and Gunnell). The graph in Figure 4 makes it evidentiary that in the UK, the male suicide figures in the age group 15-44, overtook all other age groups during the late 1990s, around 1997-98, and have since sustained higher numbers than any other group through 2008. Here it is clear that the males in the age group of 15 to 44 years are most vulnerable to committing suicide and that graph there was an overall increase in male youth suicides, after declining from 1996 until 2007. According to ONS: “In England, the number of suicides in adults decreased over the 1991-2008 period. In 1991, there were 5,109 suicides compared with 4,282 in 2008. The lowest number of suicides was recorded in 2007 at 3,993. The largest yearly increase occurred between 1997 and 1998, rising from 4,498 to 4,986. For males...suicide rates fell from 20.2 and 6.5 per 100,000 respectively in 1991 to 15.8 and 4.7 per 100,000 respectively in 2008. The rates in 2008 were higher than in 2007, increasing from 14.9 per 100,000 for males...In 1998, the rate for men aged 15-44 was the highest across the age groups at 22.2 per 100,000. In 2008, the rate for this group reduced to 16.0 per 100,000” 6 Literature Review Social problem, as defined by Beeghley, are: “ harmful condition identified by a significant number of people and recognised politically as needing improvement…with three aspects 1) an objective part that shows the extent of harm; (2) a subjective component indicates that a harmful conditions has been identified and political debate ensued; and (3) optimistic aspect suggests that people believe the condition can be improved” (4). The media gives constructs and allows access to specific social problems for a large segment of the society (in the form of readers or viewers) worldwide. Often the ways such social problems are portrayed by the media create further associated social problems that affect the society in a negative manner. Bridgend, which is labelled the male youth suicide capital of Great Britain (Ellen), is just one example of the effectual encouragement of this fatal trend through negative media depictions. Various experts and theorists have widely criticised mass media for “promoting violence and sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, and other oppressive social phenomena” (Kellner, 1) instead of highlighting the actual issues and concerns. Kellner further adds that media, while portraying social issues, tends to have a “harmful media influence on children and youth [by emphasising too much on] pornography and the degradation of women and sexuality; advertising manipulation; and the promotion of excessive consumerism and materialism” (1). This is chiefly attributed to the fact that mass media tends to produce a picture that just gives an overview of the situation without actually exploring the details of the matter (Beeghley, 15) in any depth that would provide a complete picture of the true nature of the situation. The media reports on such problems almost every day, and tend to present the situation in a superficial manner with dramatic overtones to attract attention and garner daily sales. Although such reports may deal with important issues, the media portrayal in a majority of such cases tends to be fraught with commonplace generalities and “metaphorical handwringing” (Beeghley, 9), thus diluting the actual graveness of the whole situation. Experiential researches on the media effects on society, show mixed results. While many studies confirm the negative social effects of media, in regards to highlighting social issues that creates a number of other associated social problems, some studies tend to dismiss the negative impacts. Kellner indicates that such differences in empirical results are not unexpected as: “…empirical studies are often funded by institutions who have interests in escaping or deflecting criticism, or they are constrained by bias and limitations of various kinds” (2). There are also many contradictory hypotheses and theories into the subject of media effects that have further aggravated the debate on the media’s portrayal of social problems (Kellner, 2). In the context of a globalised world, “there are wide spread concerns about the media and national culture and the ways that global media inform politics, economics, and social and everyday life” (Kellner, 2). While some researches have highlighted the nexus between the political parties and media house ownership, others have focussed on the increasing consumerism policy followed by media houses where more emphasis is placed on dramatising events to raise sales (Kellner, 2). Some researchers have also observed that, the monopoly that is so prevalent within media corporations is a major social problem with global implications. Thus, it is quite evident that the media tends to highlights social issues, even though the manner in which they portray these issues may not be appropriate and lead to the creation of other social problems, as evidenced by the occurrence of ‘copycat suicides’, believed to be generated from the media portrayal of various suicides (Ellen). The link between media portraying the UK young male suicide incidents and the subsequent actions will be examined in details in M2 paper. 7 Problem Statement and Research Questions Although male suicide rates in the UK have been significantly high, interest in this phenomenon grew when the rate of young male suicides overtook the rate of older males, even though the rate of suicide for young men has always been high. the media began to highlight this as a social problem, which has prompted my interest in the study of this phenomenon and helps frame the type of words that were used in order to search for articles. This is also important in terms of how to define a research question. A research team led by Dr David Gunnell from the University of Bristol ascertained that during the years 1950 through 1999, suicide rates almost doubled in the UK for males ages 15 to 44, which showed a decline during the 1990s, with the exception of those in the age group 25 to 34 (see Figure 5) (Gunnell, et al., 2003). Here it is evident that prior to 1998, the UK had suicide problems, although this was not considered a social issue post-1998, at a time when the overall male suicide rates were actually declining, but the age group of 15-44 years overtook all other age groups in the number of suicides committed (see Figure 5), at which point, the media began to emphasise it ( as will be proven in the future M2 paper) Figure 5: Age-standardised suicide rates per 100 000 populations in 10-year age bands: E&W, 1950–1998 (Gunnell et al, 2003a, 596). From the graphs, it is evident that number of males committing suicide is much higher than the number of women, over the years, in UK. The graph also denotes an interesting pattern here we find amongst the male figures, the number of males committing suicide in the age group 55 and above have fallen drastically, while the number of males in the age group 15-44 age group has significantly increased, especially after the 1980s and have persistently remained higher than any other age groups. Further reviews show that suicide amongst the young male population has always been one of the most prominent characteristics of the late twentieth century within industrialised nations (Cantor, 2000), while a look at the figures available from 1950 to 1998 in the UK will show us that suicide rates in men that were under 45 years of age had nearly doubled. However, the rates for women and the elderly population showed decline in regards to suicide mortality figures (Bell, 2008). In the late 1980s-90s suicide in urban England, almost took the proportions of an epidemiology. Therefore, we find that male suicide had always been present, though never considered as public health issue and, prior to 1961, was even considered as a criminal act. Yet, during the turn of the century, primarily during the early years we find that suddenly male suicides were given a great deal of prominence in the newspapers. Around 2002, the government ordered The National Health Services to look into the matter of young male suicides and provide services to the young men requesting counseling. One explanation for this sudden emphasis on male youth suicides by the print media, is the ‘moral panic’ theory, developed by Cohen in 1973. Cohen defined moral panic as “[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests (Cohen, 1973, 9). As per this theory, the ones that initiate the panic while fearing threats to the existent socio-cultural values are as moral entrepreneurs, (the print media in this case), while those that threat the existent social order become the folk devils (the UK government in this case). In this context, this paper will conduct a literature review to create a framework that would facilitate in a future research that would examine UK male suicides as a social and public health problem. It will analyse the available resources to understand whether media during the late 1990s, particularly when the males in the age group 15-44 years, started showing higher suicide mortality rates than any other age groups, changed the nature of suicides, from being a private matter, into a social issue; forcing the government and other public bodies to create guidelines in order to prevent the media from sensationalising the incidents and leading to ‘copycat suicides’ (MediaWise Trust, 2007). The key questions that you are going to be addressed in the M2 include: What are the subjectively defined harmful consequences to suicide found in each of the articles? What are the statistical representations of the male (age group 15-44years) suicide rates in UK and worldwide? How does the press portray instances of males youth suicides in UK, and When did the press start emphasizing on male suicides in UK? Did press have a role in the terms of being a ‘moral entrepreneur’ (as per the moral panic theory) and changing the topic of male youth suicides from being a private matter into an issue of social concern? Data extraction for study and analysis is organized under the following concepts: 1) What is suicide, and how was it viewed in UK from the ancient times until the last century? 2) What are the social impacts of suicides? 3) How do media (press) tend to portray suicides, and what are the social effects of such portrayals? 4) From a public health perspective, does the information that the male youth in the age group of 5-44 years are committing suicides at a rate higher than any other age groups, serve as a preventive measure to lower the suicide mortality rates? Study selection: Inclusion criteria for the studies were as follows: Newspapers like The Guardian and The Times UK were chosen, to represent the various portrayal of young male suicide mortality news throughout the years. These two papers were put under the inclusion criteria as these are the two well papers that represent a wide variety of the social classes as prevalent in UK, with Guardian having leftist views represents the working public classes while The Times representing the upper socioeconomic classes. Outcome measures: what are the social outcomes of suicides and the media portrayal of suicides? Excluded were studies on articles that reviewed suicides in non-male members and male members over the age group of 44 years, and in reports of male suicide mortality figures in countries other than UK. The limits also were concerned with the language, and only English publications were included. Studies that matched the inclusion criteria were independently reviewed and assessed by the researcher, and in the case of any inconsistency, consensus was reached by discussion with the guide. Works Cited Anderson, O. Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1987. 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Sainsbury, P., and Jenkins, J., 1982. “The accuracy of officially reported suicide statistics for purposes of epidemiological research.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 36 : 43-48. Schmidtke, A., 1997. “Perspective: suicide in Europe.” Suicide Life Threatening Behavior, 27: 127-136. Shipton, M.. Male suicide rates currently highest in UK. Walesonline.co.uk. 2008. 7 September 2011 . “The Second Decade: Improving Adolescent Health and Development.” 2001. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. The UK Statute Law Database. Suicide Act 1961 (c.60). OPSI. 1991. 7 September 2011 . The UK Statute Law Database. Criminal Law Act 1977(c.45). OPSI. 1998. 7 September 2011 . WHO,. “Working Group on Preventive Practices in Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Summary Report.” (ICP/PSF 017 (S) 6526 V). Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 1986. “Study looks at suicide attitudes.” BBC News, 15 February 2006. 7 September 2011 . Read More