Sociological autopsy: An integrated approach to the study of suicide in men

This paper’s main aim is to argue the methodological case for a particular approach to researching the sociology of suicide. By way of illustrating the use of this approach it also offers some brief examples of substantive findings about the gendered character of men’s suicides. The first half of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial science & medicine (1982) Vol. 74; no. 4; pp. 466 - 473
Main Authors Scourfield, Jonathan, Fincham, Ben, Langer, Susanne, Shiner, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2012
Pergamon Press Inc
Subjects
Autopsies
Conflict (Psychology)
Coroners and Medical Examiners
Crime
Employment
Gender
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Males
Masculinities
Masculinity
Men
Men - psychology
Mental Disorders - psychology
Methodology
Psychological autopsy
Psychology
Social Distance
Social Isolation
Socioeconomic Factors
Sociological autopsy
Sociological research
Sociology
Sociology, Medical
Suicide
Suicide - psychology
Suicides & suicide attempts
Typology
United Kingdom
Values
United Kingdom > UK
Sociological autopsy
Methodology
UK
Men
Psychological autopsy
Suicide
Masculinities
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Summary:This paper’s main aim is to argue the methodological case for a particular approach to researching the sociology of suicide. By way of illustrating the use of this approach it also offers some brief examples of substantive findings about the gendered character of men’s suicides. The first half of the article explains and justifies the research approach. This is a qualitatively-driven mixed method and dual paradigm study of individual suicides. It is a sociological study which draws on the tradition of psychological autopsies of suicide; hence the term ‘sociological autopsy’. The second half of the article offers brief illustrative findings from a specific research project which employed the sociological autopsy approach. This was a study of 100 suicide case files from a coroner’s office in the UK. There is discussion of common sense assumptions about suicide in men; the construction of evidence in case files; a typology of gendered suicides where relationship breakdown seems to be the principal trigger; and the value of case-based analysis, with a single case discussed in some detail.
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ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.01.054