Elsevier

Journal of Adolescence

Volume 22, Issue 1, February 1999, Pages 145-155
Journal of Adolescence

Regular Article
Suicide among the young — the size of the problem

https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.1998.0207Get rights and content

Abstract

It is widely recognized that official suicide rates conceal the real scale of non-accidental self-injurious fatal behaviour, including among children and young people. There are many reasons for this including the constraints of registration policy and practice, uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding a death, an unwillingness—often for the family's sake—to affix a suicide label on a child, and perhaps the belief that the term “suicide” is not quite accurate. The present study examined all records over a 17-year period from an inner London coroner's office in order to make some quantitative assessment of the extent to which non-accidental self-injurious deaths might be underestimated by suicide returns among those under 20 years. It is suggested on the basis of this examination that the real rate of what might be termed “suicide” among this group may be up to three times the official recorded level. This finding received general confirmation from a smaller-scale comparison in an out of London location.

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Although all acts of fatal non-accidental self-injury may not meet criminal or civil standards of proof for suicide, these terms are used somewhat interchangeably throughtout this article. The former is favoured in relation to the possible "suicide" of the study sample.

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Reprint requests and correspondence should be addressed to Dr N. Madge, National Children's Bureau, 8 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7QE, U.K.

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