Statistics of child suicide / by Arthur MacDonald.

  • MacDonald, Arthur, 1856-1936.
Date:
[1908?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Statistics of child suicide / by Arthur MacDonald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    STA By Arthur MAcDoNALD>\iMB^M^N, D.C., Honorary Presi- dent of the Third International Congress of Criminal Anthropology of Europe. The older writers scarcely mention child suicide. It was not until the nineteenth century that the matter was brought to the attention of the public. France. In the following table of official statistics * it will be seen that from 1839 to 1898 juvenile suicide increased in France. The number of suicides given by the Minister of Justice is less than the reality, for parents are disposed to attribute the cause of death to some accident. Many attempts at suicide are not given truthfully to the police, parents and school-teachers alike being interested to conceal the facts. Even the police may abstain from reporting the truth in the cases where there is no suspicion of crime. TABLE I. Years. All Suicides. Children under 16. Children from 16 to 21. Total. Boys. Girls. Total. Boys. Girls. 1839 .... 2,752 20 16 4 132 80 52 1849 .... 3,583 20 13 7 122 76 46 1859 .... 3,899 16 16 — 139 94 45 1869 .... 5,114 37 — — 168 — — 1879 .... 6,496 61 38 23 266 187 79 1889 .... 8,180 56 — — 392 242 150 1898 .... 9,438 85 477 273 204 England. From Table II, giving English official statistics,f it will be seen that there has been a relative increase of suicide for both adults and children from 1861 to 1890. * Statistique du Ministre de la Justice, France, t Supplement to Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Registrar-General.