Citation

Campbell FR. J. Comp. Soc. Welfare 2000; 16(1): 88.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17486830008415785

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The United States, perceived globally as a well-armed and violent culture, is partrayed in this way by a media that focuses primarily on homicide. Homicides accounted for 19,846 deaths in 1997 for a rate of 7.4 per 100,000 while suicide on the other hand had a rate of 11.4 per 100,000 and 30,535 deaths. Americans are routinely surprised that suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, exceeding homicide by more than fifty percent. The cognitive confusion that surrounds suicide for those significantly impacted by the death (survivors of suicide) is accompanied by a complicated bereavement process that increases risk of suicide for current and future generations. Not focusing on the survivors, the societal norm instead focuses on the deceased by creating a specific list of stressors that preceded the suicide in order to better explain the cause of death. A legacy of suicide and suicidal behavior can be seen as a form of multi-generational family abuse especially in a culture which inadvertently victimizes the survivors. American suicidologists have primarily researched the complex dynamics behind suicide and suicidal behavior with the individual in crisis as the main focus. Shifting the focus toward the survivors of suicide who have been impacted by a cause of death where the survivors' risk to die by suicide is increased and their quality of life greatly impaired will demonstrate the multi-generational consequences generated by suicide as a cause of death and by American society's response to suicide.