What kills more people in Britain; suicide or murder?

[Deleted User] · 12/09/10 - 10:08

I was wondering this today. Does anyone know how I can find out?

Đirona · 12/09/10 - 10:10

and a jolly good morning to you too!

Color of Night · 12/09/10 - 10:11

I would have thought suicide to be honest.

Elphie_Lives · 12/09/10 - 10:12

Look at suicide rates vs murder convictions (obviously this will be out but for a rough idea.)

I'd say it depends if you include manslaughter etc. If you include all manners of someone else killing another be it deliberate or accidental then I'd say that, but if you just mean going and stabbing someone randomly, then I'd say suicide.

Ricky D Gervais · 12/09/10 - 10:17

I'd be staggered if it wasn't murder.

Clearview · 12/09/10 - 10:23

Ricky D Gervais wrote: »

I'd be staggered if it wasn't murder.

Really? There was 5,706 sucides recorded in 2008/09 and 648 homicides

Deep Purple · 12/09/10 - 10:28

Ricky D Gervais wrote: »

I'd be staggered if it wasn't murder.

Suicide is very common. When I worked as a Coroners Officer, i would deal with about two a month.

Deep Purple · 12/09/10 - 10:29

Clearview wrote: »

Really? There was about 5,706 sucides recorded in 2008/09 and 648 homicides

I assume they are suicide verdicts at an Inquest. If so, the number is much higher, because plenty have an Open verdict recorded.

The 12th Doctor · 12/09/10 - 10:37

Without doubt it's suicide since murder is so comparatively rare in the UK (as a previous poster pointed out, the suicide rate is about ten times the murder rate).

The media would like you to think that we're a nation under siege from crazy killers around every corner. This is the same media that reported a WW2 bomber was found on the moon.

LMTie · 12/09/10 - 10:48

Suicide has always run at a relatively high rate in this country.

No government ever likes to mention it because, obviously, it's an extremely embarrassing statistic for them.

When you think of the time, finances and resources that are poured into reducing deaths on our roads (which are accidents), it's staggering to think that almost double that amount of people simply choose to top themselves each year and yet the subject is rarely, if ever, mentioned by politicians.

The 12th Doctor · 12/09/10 - 10:53

The reason nobody mentions it, while at the same time going mad about crime, is that the former can only be solved by helping individuals cope with their social and/or economic conditions, personal problems and so forth, while the latter requires only that you scream and shout about bad people, the kind of vitriol which gets people votes. Reality is that the only real difference between suicide and a lot of crime is that suicides internalize their problems while criminals externalize them. It's the same reason why there's fewer female criminals than men; it's not that women are "less evil" than men, it's just that women tend to internalize their problems while men tend to externalize them. Of course there are men who internalize and women who externalize - that's the effect of individual differences - but in general that's the way it goes down.

[Deleted User] · 12/09/10 - 11:17

The 12th Doctor wrote: »

The reason nobody mentions it, while at the same time going mad about crime, is that the former can only be solved by helping individuals cope with their social and/or economic conditions, personal problems and so forth, while the latter requires only that you scream and shout about bad people, the kind of vitriol which gets people votes. Reality is that the only real difference between suicide and a lot of crime is that suicides internalize their problems while criminals externalize them. It's the same reason why there's fewer female criminals than men; it's not that women are "less evil" than men, it's just that women tend to internalize their problems while men tend to externalize them. Of course there are men who internalize and women who externalize - that's the effect of individual differences - but in general that's the way it goes down.

And yet young men are amongst the highest in suicide stats (along with elderly people).

Clearview · 12/09/10 - 11:20

LMTie wrote: »

Suicide has always run at a relatively high rate in this country.

No government ever likes to mention it because, obviously, it's an extremely embarrassing statistic for them.

When you think of the time, finances and resources that are poured into reducing deaths on our roads (which are accidents), it's staggering to think that almost double that amount of people simply choose to top themselves each year and yet the subject is rarely, if ever, mentioned by politicians.

Actually we have one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe (look at table at end of article):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/suicide-rates-data-ons

If we did have a high suicide rate compared to other countries it would definitely be reported in great detail in the press, such as the Daily Mail.

The fact that we have a relatively low suicide rate in comparison is why it is not reported so much.

LMTie · 12/09/10 - 11:30

Clearview wrote: »

Actually we have one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe (look at table at end of article):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/suicide-rates-data-ons

If we did have a high suicide rate compared to other countries it would definitely be reported in great detail in the press, such as the Daily Mail.

The fact that we have a relatively low suicide rate in comparison is why it is not reported so much.

I meant that the suicide rate is relatively high compared to other means of death in this country, as per my road deaths reference.

Although, if you look at the figures you linked to, the UK suicide for males (which account for, by far, the biggest numbers of suicides), the UK fares quite badly.

mathertron · 12/09/10 - 13:46

I'm quite sure it's suicide.

Ricky D Gervais · 12/09/10 - 13:51

Clearview wrote:

Really? There was 5,706 sucides recorded in 2008/09 and 648 homicides

Deep Purple wrote: »

Suicide is very common. When I worked as a Coroners Officer, i would deal with about two a month.

Well shut my mouth. I entirely blame the scare-mongering media for my misapprehension

staceyxxx23 · 12/09/10 - 13:52

Murder I'd say. I swear it's happening all the time.

julie88 · 12/09/10 - 14:00

Obviously it's suicide... suicide just doesn't make for quite the same outraged headlines as murder so often goes unmentioned in the media.... Suicide is almost only mentioned when it's a "murder suicide"...

Hypnodisc · 12/09/10 - 14:19

Again, suicide..

When I was in hospital somebody committed suicide successfully by jumping in front of a train, and I've heard of many more attempts and people I didn't actually 'know' killing themselves (somebody in a different year to me in school hung himself).

I wouldn't be able to tell you the last murder that happened in this town.. no doubt there has been murder, but it's nowhere near as prolific as it's made out to be.

Joey Deacon · 12/09/10 - 14:57

Suicide, by far.

Last Friday was actually International Suicide Awareness Day.

Apparently, suicide is committed every 40-seconds worldwide.

And around 1 million people killed themselves last year.

Hey there!

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What kills more people in Britain; suicide or murder?

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