What does a suicide rate reveal about a society?

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Sociology - Social System, Social Structure, Class, Social Stratification, grade: 2.1 (B), Oxford University (New College), 4 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Durkheim in his book 'Suicide: A Study in Sociology' (1897) stated that 'the term suicide is applied to every case of death which results directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act, carried out by the victim himself, knowing that it will produce this result. An attempt is an act defined in the same way, but falling short of actual death.' He used the study of suicide in order to illustrate his own methodological approach and many studies that followed have been, at least in part, a reaction to his work. Durkheim, although acknowledging that there are individual conditions which can cause an individual to kill him/herself, emphasised that 'every society is predisposed to produce a certain number of voluntary deaths' and that 'the sociologist studies causes that affect not the individual but the group'. He believed that the suicide rate 'constitutes an order of facts which is unified and definite' and that it can reveal certain aspects of society especially when looking at the different types of suicide that have been committed. I am going to explore Durkheim's theory of suicide and what he believed a suicide rate reveals about a society. I am further going to look at some other theories of suicide and how these have supported or challenged Durkheim's views. [...]