Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T14:23:58.856Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legal and administrative influences on the English suicide rate since 1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

C. Jennings  and
B Barraclough
C. Jennings*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton
B Barraclough
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton
*
1Address for correspondence: Mr C. Jennings, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton S09 4PE.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

We examined the hypothesis that changes in the suicide rate of England and Wales since 1900 are an artefact of changes in the process of classifying violent deaths. Four potential sources of artefact were considered: (1) the reliability of the procedure for investigating suspected suicides; (2) coding by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys; (3) changes in the law; (4) High Court decisions on suicide. None of these can explain the large observed fluctuations in the suicide rate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , August 1980 , pp. 407 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

All England Law Reports (1944), 2, 453.Google Scholar
All England Law Reports (1967), 1, 688.Google Scholar
All England Law Reports (1970), 3, 469.Google Scholar
All England Law Reports (1975), 3, 538.Google Scholar
Butterworth's Workmen's Compensation Reports (1912), 5, 251. Southall v. Cheshire County News Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Evening Mail (Slough and Hounslow) (1974), 4 07, p. 1.Google Scholar
Her Majesty's Stationery Office (1940). Manual of the International List of Causes of Death (fifth revision). HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Holding, T. A. & Barraclough, B. M. (1978). Undetermined deaths; suicide or accident? British Journal of Psychiatry 133, 542–549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Home Office (1971). Report of the Committee on Death Certification and Coroners (The Brodrick Report). HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Purchase, W. B. & Wollaston, H. W. (1957). Jerv⊙ on the Office and Duties of Coroners (ninth edn). Sweet & Maxwell: London.Google Scholar
Surtees, S. J. (1977). Letter. Lancet iii, 872.Google Scholar
The Times (1944), 12 05, p. 2.Google Scholar
The Times (1956 a), 16 05, p. 18.Google Scholar
The Times (1956 b), 9 06, p. 10.Google Scholar
The Times (1967), 17 01, p. 4.Google Scholar
The Times (1968), 10 12, p. 5.Google Scholar
The Times (1970), 7 07, p. 7.Google Scholar
The Times (1974), 7 12, p. 3.Google Scholar
The Times (1975), 2 07, p. 5.Google Scholar
Thurston, G. (1976). Coronership. Barry Rose: Chichester.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death Vol. 1 (sixth revision, 1948; seventh revision, 1957; eighth revision, 1967; ninth revision, 1977). WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar