Suicide in the Focus of Criminology

Abstract

This survey article deals with the approaches to the complex psychosocial phenomenon of suicide in criminology, looks into the existing problems and obstacles in the field of suicide prevention and also reviews the progress which this interdisciplinary science has made in it so far. The author shows how suicide was studied throughout the history of criminology, points out to the generality of causes of both suicidal and criminal behavior, identifies major psychosocial factors of suicide, proposes his own definition of suicide. The psychological-criminological description of suicide types is given for the domains where this phenomenon is most frequent along with preventive measures for each domain. The psychosocial characteristic is presented for suicidal personality and also similar traits are found between suicidal and criminal personality. The author describes the psychological stigmatization syndrome of a potential suicide's personality, analyzes the scientific concepts explaining the causes of suicide, concludes that there is a need to establish an effective system of suicide prevention and also singles out the new methods aimed at improving the practices for prevention of suicidal behavior.

Keywords

• criminology
• suicide
• suicidal behavior
• study of suicide
• suicide prevention
• psychosocial causes of suicide
• suicide's personality