Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gender, place, and method of suicide

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

The goal of the study was to investigate whether women use less lethal methods in committing suicide than men. A related objective was to determine whether place of committing suicide influences method of suicide.

Method

Data on all completed suicides occurring in Riverside County from 1998 to 2001 were derived from original death certificates obtained from records of the County Coroner. Descriptive statistics on method and place of suicide by sex were computed and graphically presented. Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to data on 643 suicide victims to estimate the unique effects of sex and place of suicide on the three most common methods observed: firearms, hanging, and drug poisoning.

Results

Women were over 73% less likely to use firearms than men (OR = 0.267, CI = 0.172, 0.413). There were no sex differentials in hanging. Female victims were over 4 times more likely to die from drug poisoning than male victims (OR = 4.828, CI = 3.047, 7.650). When place of committing suicide was added to the equation, it was found that victims killing themselves at home were over 2.5 times as likely to use firearms as those dying in outdoor settings (OR = 2.501, CI = 1.078, 6.051). Persons committing suicide at home were over 3 times more likely to hang themselves than those killing themselves outdoors or on railway tracks (CI = 3.118, CI = 1.447, 6.718). Victims committing suicide at home were also 3 times as likely to use drugs as those dying outdoors or on railway tracks (OR = 3.118, CI = 1.242, 7.828). Hotel or motel suicides were 4.9 times more likely to use drug poisoning than outdoor or railway suicides (OR = 4.924, CI = 1.409, 17.206).

Conclusions

The proposition that women use less lethal methods of committing suicide than men was only partially supported by the data. It appears that the situation is more complex than a simple dichotomy between more lethal and less lethal methods. In past research, hanging has been considered a very lethal method. However, women were just as likely to hang themselves as men. Furthermore, firearm use was the second mode of suicide among women. The overall policy implication of this study is that suicide prevention efforts should concentrate not only on dissuading potential suicide victims, but also limiting access to firearms and promoting responsible firearm storage practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schmidtke A, Bille-Brahe U, De Leo D, Kerkhof A, Bjerke T, Crepet P, Haring C, Hawton K, Lonnqvist J, Michel K, Pommereau X, Querejeta I, Philippe A, Salander-Renberg E, Temesvary B, Wasserman D, Fricke S, Weinacker B, Sampaio Faria J (1996) Attempted suicide in Europe: rates, trends and sociodemographic characteristics of suicide attempters during the period 1989–1992. Results of the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Parasuicide. Acta Psychiatr Scand 93:327–338

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Kerkhof JFM (2000) Attempted suicide: patterns and trends. In: Hawton K, van Heeringen K (eds) The international handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Wiley and Sons, New York, pp 49–64

    Google Scholar 

  3. Gunnell DJ, Peters TJ, Kammerling RM, Brooks J (1995) Relation between parasuicide, suicide, psychiatric admissions, and socioeconomic deprivation. Br Med J 311:226–230

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bille-Brahe U (1993) The role of sex and age in suicidal behavior. Acta Psychiatr Scand 371(Suppl):S21–S27

    Google Scholar 

  5. McIntosh JL, Lewell BL (1986) Sex differences in trends in completed suicide. Suicide Life Threat Behav 16:16–27

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Stack S (2000) Suicide: a 15-year review of the sociological literature Par I: cultural and economic factors. Suicide Life Threat Behav 24:362–374

    Google Scholar 

  7. Moscicki EK (1996) Gender differences in completed and attempted suicides. Ann Epidemiol 4:152–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hassan R (1995) Suicide explained. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  9. Stack S (2000) Suicide: a 15-year review of the sociological literature Par II: modernization and social integration perspectives. Suicide Life Threat Behav 24:362–374

    Google Scholar 

  10. Stack S, Danigelis N (1985) Modernization and sex differentials in suicide 1919–1972. Comp Soc Res 8:203–216

    Google Scholar 

  11. Stack S (1997) The effect of labor force participation on female suicide rates: an analysis of individual data from 16 states. OMEGA 34:163–169

    Google Scholar 

  12. Girard C (1993) Age, gender and suicide: a cross-national analysis. Am Sociol Rev 58:553–574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hagin J, Gillis AR, Simpson J (1985) The class structure of gender and delinquency: toward a power-control theory of common delinquent behavior. Am J Sociol 90:1151–1178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hagin J, Simpson J, Gillis AR (1988) Feminist scholarship, relational and instrumental control, and a power-control theory of gender and delinquency. Br J Sociol 39: 301–377

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kaplan MS, Geling O (1988) Firearm suicides and homicides in the United States: regional variations and patterns of gun ownership. Soc Sci Med 46:1227–1233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Denning DG, Convell Y, King D, Cox C (2000) Method choice, intent, and gender in completed suicide. Suicide Life Threat Behav 30:282–288

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Cooper PN, Milroy CM (1994) Violent suicide in South Yorkshire, England. J Forensic Sci 39:657–667

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Schapira K, Linsley KR, Linsley JA, Kelly TP, Kay DWK (2001) Relationship of suicide rates to social factors and availability of lethal methods. Br J Psychiatry 178:458–464

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Rich CL, Rickets JE, Fowler RC, Young D (1988) Some differences between men and women who commit suicide. Am J Psych 145:718–722

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Canetto SS, Sakinosfsky I (1998) The gender paradox in suicide. Suicide Life Threat Behav 28:1–23

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Suter B (1976) Suicide and women. In: Wolman B, Kraus H (eds) Between survival and suicide. Gardner Press, New York, pp 129–161

    Google Scholar 

  22. Lester D (2002) Why people kill themselves: a 2000 summary of research on suicide. Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Ltd., Springfield, IL

    Google Scholar 

  23. Nielsen B, Wang AG, Bille-Brahe U (1990) Attempted suicide in Denmark IV: a five-year follow-up. Acta Psychiatr Scand 81:250–254

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Skogman K, Alsén M, Öjehagen A (2004) Sex differences in risk factors for suicide after attempted suicide: a follow-up study of 1052 suicide attempters. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 39:113–120

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Lonnqvist JK (2000) Psychiatric aspects of suicidal behaviour: depression. In: Hawton K, van Heeringen K (eds) The international handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Wiley and Sons, New York, pp 107–120

    Google Scholar 

  26. van Gastel A, Schotte C, Maes M (1997) The prediction of suicidal intent in depressed patients. Acta Psychiatr Scand 96:254–259

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Harris CE, Barraclough BM (1997) Suicide as an outcome for mental disorders. Br J Psychiatry 170:205–228

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Ohberg A, Vuori E, Ojanpera I, Lonnqvist J (1996) Alcohol and drugs in suicides. Br J Psychiatry 169:75–80

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. California Department of Finance (2002) http://www/dof.ca. gov/ (Accessed 4 March 2004)

  30. SAS Institute (2004) SAS/STAT software: the logistic procedure, version 9.1 (Computer Software). SAS Institute Incorporated, Cary: North Carolina

    Google Scholar 

  31. National Center for Health Statistics (2004) Deaths: Final Data for 2002. Natl Vital Stat Rep 53:1–116

    Google Scholar 

  32. Kachur SP, Potter LB, James SP, Powell KE (1995) Suicide in the United States 1980–1992. Violence surveillance summary series, No. 1. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  33. Conwell Y, Duberstein PR, Connor K, Eberly S, Cox C, Caine ED (2002) Access to firearms and risk for suicide in middle-aged and older adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 10:407–416

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Kaplan MS, Adamek ME, Geling O, Calderon A (1997) Firearm suicide among older women in the US. Soc Sci Med 44:1427–1430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Liu T, Waterbor JW (1995) Declining use of firearms to commit suicide in Alabama in the 1980s. OMEGA 30:145–153

    Google Scholar 

  36. Kellermann AL (1994) Firearm-related violence—what we don’t know is killing us. Am J Public Health 84:541–542

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Seltzer F (1994) Trends in mortality from violent deaths: suicide and homicide, United States 1960–1991. Stat Bull 75:10–18

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. MacDonald IL, Lerer LB (1994) A time-series analysis of trends in firearm related homicide and suicide. Int J Epidemiol 23:66–72

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Miller M, Azrael D, Hemenway D (2002) Firearm availability and suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm deaths among women. J Urban Aff 79:26–38

    Google Scholar 

  40. Dahlberg LL, Ikeda RM, Kresnow M (2004) Guns in the home and risk of a violent death in the home: findings from a national study. Am J Epidemiol 160:929–936

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Lee RK, Banton JG, Cummings P, Hackman BB, Somes G (1996) Injuries due to firearms in three cities. N Engl J Med 335:1438–1444

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Conner KR, Zhong Y (2003) State firearm laws and rates of suicide in men and women. Am J Prev Med 25:320–324

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Cutright P, Fernquist RM (2000) Firearms and suicide: the American experience, 1926–1996. Death Stud 24:705–719

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Johnson RM, Coyne-Beasley T, Runyan CW (2004) Firearm ownership and storage practices, U.S. households, 1992–2002: a systematic review. Am J Prev Med 27:173–182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. National Center for Health Statistics (2004) Health, United States, 2004 with chartbook on trends in the health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD

  46. Romero MP, Wintemute GJ (2002) The epidemiology of firearm suicide in the United States. J Urban Health 79:39–48

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Cook PJ, Ludwig J (1997) Guns in America: national survey on private ownership and use of firearms (NCJ 165476). National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  48. Bailey JE, Kellermann AL, Somes GW, Banton JG, Rivara FP, Rushforth NP (1997) Arch Intern Med 157:777–782

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Adler KP, Barondess JA, Cohen JJ (1994) Firearm violence and public health: limiting the availability of guns. JAMA 271:1281–1283

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Leenars AA, Moksony F, Lester D, Wenckstern S (2003) The impact of gun control (Bill C-51) on suicide in Canada. Death Stud 27:103–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Shenassa ED, Catlin SN, Buka SL (2003) Lethality of firearms relative to other suicide methods: a population based study. J Epidemiol Commun Health 57:120–124

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Vyrostek SR, Annest JL, Ryan GW (2004) Surveillance for fatal and nonfatal injuries—United States 2001. MMWR 53(SS07): 1–57

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Bob Doyle, Riverside County Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator for his permission to collect the data used in this report. Without his authorization, the research would not have been possible. The authors are also indebted to Maribel Solorio, Office Assistant in the Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau. Maribel was kind enough to explain the filing system and helped narrow the search for suicide deaths, which streamlined data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Sociology 1214 Watkins Hall, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Augustine J. Kposowa PhD & James P. McElvain MA

  2. Riverside County Sheriff Dept., Riverside, CA, USA

    James P. McElvain MA

Authors
  1. Augustine J. Kposowa PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James P. McElvain MA
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Augustine J. Kposowa PhD.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kposowa, A.J., McElvain, J.P. Gender, place, and method of suicide. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 41, 435–443 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0054-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0054-2

Key words

Search

Navigation