ABSTRACT
Jack Douglas has presented the most comprehensive critique of the official suicide statistics that Durkheim used in Suicide. At the same time Douglas put forward an alternative sociological approach to the study of suicide. This chapter addresses the problems that arise from Durkheim’s use of official statistics on suicide and compares the two different approaches to studying suicide. In what follows I focus first on the points in Suicide where Durkheim discusses the accuracy and meaning of suicide statistics; I then discuss the problems arising out of Durkheim’s definition of suicide; I outline and assess Douglas’ critique of Durkheim; and finally I compare Durkheim’s study of suicide rates with Douglas’ analysis of the collective and individual meanings involved in the suicidal process.
