Suicide Essays

Suicide Essays Suicide Essay Suicide Essay Teenage years are the hardest times. Your having changes in your body, going through relationships, and trying to plan your future. When you go to look for answers, it seems like no one has them. Thats what starts teenagers to feel alone. When they feel this way they will try to medicate themselves by drugs and alcohol or violence. Studies show that teens who feel this way are Suicide, intentional, self-inflicted death. A uniquely human act, suicide occurs in all cultures. People who attempt or complete suicide usually suffer from extreme emotional pain and distress and feel unable to cope with their problems. They are likely to suffer from mental illness, particularly severe depression, and to Suicide is becoming a public-health problem. It is now the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers believe mental illness in young people are the cause of the increase in suicide. Not only do suicides rates differ between age groups but also men and women. Men succeed in more suicide s but more women attempt. Methods of suicide can differ from drug overdose to hanging. Poisoning or overdose is the least amount of suicide rates. Hanging is the leading method worldwide. The United States has 60 percent suicides committed by guns. Where it is less easy to get a gun in Canada there is only 30 percent committed suicides. Only 15 to 25 percent of those who kill themselves leave suicide notes. People often think suicide is caused by difficult situations such as failure in school or marriage. Experts believe those are just triggers and its really caused by the brain, genetics or social forces. The majority of people who kill themselves are suffering from depression. Researchers believe that genetics play a role in suicidal behavior. They believe it runs in the family. There are also some psychological theories.

Definition and Examples of Structural Violence

Definition and Examples of Structural Violence Structural violence refers to any scenario in which a social structure perpetuates inequity, thus causing preventable suffering. When studying structural violence, we examine the ways that social structures (economic, political, medical, and legal systems) can have a disproportionately negative impact on particular groups and communities. The concept of structural violence gives us a way to consider how and in what forms these negative impacts occur, as well as what can be done to curtail such harm. Background The term structural violence was coined by the Johan Gultang, a Norwegian sociologist. In his 1969 article, â€Å"Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,† Gultang argued that structural violence explained the negative power of social institutions and systems of social organization among marginalized communities. It is important to distinguish Gultang’s concept of violence from the term as it is traditionally defined (physical violence of war or crime). Gultang defined structural violence as the root cause of the differences between people’s potential reality and their actual circumstances. For example, potential life expectancy in the general population might be significantly longer than the actual life expectancy for members of disadvantaged groups, due to factors like racism, economic inequality, or sexism. In this example, the discrepancy between the potential and the actual life expectancy results from structural violence. Significance of Structural Violence Structural violence enables more nuanced analyses of the social, cultural, political, economic, and historical forces that shape inequality and suffering. It creates an opportunity to consider seriously the role of different types of marginalization – such as sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, and/or poverty – in creating lived experiences that are fundamentally less equal. Structural violence helps explain the multiple and often intersecting forces that create and perpetuate inequality on multiple levels, both for individuals and communities. Structural violence also highlights the historical roots of modern inequality. The inequities and suffering of our time often unfold within a broader history of marginalization, and this framework provides a critical context for understanding the present in terms of its relationship to the past. For instance, marginalization in post-colonial countries often connects closely with their colonial histories, just as inequality in the U.S. must be considered with respect to complex histories of slavery, immigration, and policy. Structural Violence and Health Today, the concept of structural violence is widely used in the fields of public health, medical anthropology, and global health. Structural violence is particularly useful for examining suffering and inequity in the sphere of health. It highlights the complex and overlapping factors that influence health outcomes, such as in the case of health disparities (or inequity) between different racial or ethnic communities in the U.S. or elsewhere. Paul Farmer’s research, writing, and applied work in the field of global health has brought significant attention to the concept of structural violence. An anthropologist and physician, Dr. Farmer has worked in this field for decades, using the lens of structural violence to show the connections between vast differences in wealth accumulation and related disparities in health care and outcomes around the world. His work emerges from the intersections of public health and human rights, and he is the Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University. Dr. Farmer co-founded Partners in Health, an international organization that aims to improve preventable negative health outcomes in disadvantaged – and disproportionately ill – communities. Why is it at some of the world’s poorest countries are also the sickest? The answer is structural violence. Farmer and Partners in Health began working in Haiti in the mid-1980s, but the organization has since expanded to multiple sites and projects around the world. Projects related to structural violence and health include: The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in HaitiTuberculosis epidemics in Russian prisonsReconstructing Rwanda’s health care system after the 1994 genocideHIV/AIDS interventions in Haiti and Lesotho Structural Violence in Anthropology Many cultural and medical anthropologists are influenced by the theory of structural violence. Key anthropological texts on structural violence and health are: Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (Paul Farmer)Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil (Nancy Scheper-Hughes)Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (Seth Holmes)In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Philippe Bourgois) Structural violence is particularly prominent in medical anthropology, including the anthropology of global health. It has been used to analyze a variety of topics, including but not limited to substance abuse, migrant health, child mortality, womens health, and infectious disease. Sources Farmer, Paul. Haiti After the Earthquake. Public Affairs, 2011.Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a M an Who Would Cure the World. Random House, 2009.Rylko-Bauer, Barbara and Paul Farmer. Structural Violence, Poverty, and Social Suffering. The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty. April 2017.Taylor, Janelle. Explaining Difference: Culture, Structural Violence, and Medical Anthropology. Office of Minority Affairs at Diversity, The University of Washington.