Premium
Dimensions of Suicide: Perceptions of Lethality, Time, and Agony
Author(s) -
Rhyne Clinton Ernest,
Templer Donald I.,
Brown Lillian G.,
Peters Noel B.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1995.tb00959.x
Subject(s) - lethality , demography , suicide prevention , medicine , suicide methods , poison control , psychology , clinical psychology , medical emergency , suicide rates , biology , genetics , sociology
Two hundred ninety‐one lay persons and 10 forensic pathologists rated the lethality, time, and agony for 28 methods of suicide for 4117 cases of completed suicide in Los Angeles County in the period 1988–1991. Whereas pathologists provided consistent ratings, lay persons demonstrated extreme variability and a tendency to inflate ratings of all three dimensions. Significant gender differences emerged, with females rating frequently used suicide methods more similarly to pathologists than the males did. Males who suicided used the most lethal and quickest methods whereas females selected methods varying in lethality, duration, and agony. African Americans were overrepresented in the use of the most lethal and quickest methods.