Is Suicide Contagious?
Literature Review
Michael Myers
Eng.101C
November 17, 2013
Abstract
This essay is a documentation of how suicide is “contracted”, if indeed it is contagious, and how a group of people can stop it. The first item we explore is why people kill themselves. Is it that they are lonely, depressed? They kill themselves because of their connections to the people, and they kill themselves in a “copy-cat” sort of way. The next element is the question “Is suicide contagious?”, and all four of the authors agreed to some extent that when people kill themselves, it is often that they had friends, or someone they knew kill themselves. The last point is the question “How do we stop them from killing themselves?”, and there was a variety of answers but the most common one was to stop, or control the media’s output on suicide.
Is Suicide Contagious?
“Suicide contagion is perhaps the most devastating illustration of the power of social networks” (Christakis & Fowler, 2009, p. 121) These authors are stating that the cause of the world’s deadliest diseases is caused by who a person is surrounded by, who they are close to. The authors say that going from one person to another it’s much like a disease that is spread when a new flu enters the world. According to (Williams, 2011, p 2)”There is evidence that the reporting or depiction of suicidal behavior in young people can contribute to further such behavior among their peers”. (Freda, 2010, p 3) explains “bullying has long increased the risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior… including the increasing common phenomenon of cyberbullying, suggests that youth threatened or injured by peers were 2.4 times more likely to report suicidal thoughts and 3.3 times more likely to report suicidal behavior than nonvictimized peers…For adolescents, suicide exposure confers a real risk of “copycat” suicides. Risk is proportional to amount, duration, and prominence of media coverage.” While (Stacks, 2000, p 1)...