The Efficacy of Alternative Approaches to Parole Prediction

Abstract

attempted suicides. Negroes and Indians have a low incidence of completed suicide and a high incidence of attempted suicide. 5. The highest completed and attempted suicide rates by marital status are for the divorced. Married people have the lowest rates for completed suicides, and the widowed have the lowest rates for attempted suicide. 6. The white collar occupations have lower rates of completed and attempted suicides than blue collar occupations. 7. No consistent patterns are found in seasonal and daily variations of completed and attempted suicides. 8. For both completed and attempted suicides, males tend to utilize more violent means and methods than females. By developing a suicide completion index, which relates completed suicides to completed plus attempted suicides, it was possible to isolate statistically an component of the suicide complex. When this component was related to sex, means and methods, race, age, and marital status, the following relationships were observed: 1. Hanging and firearms provide the most efficient method of committing suicide. Poison and cutting and piercing instruments constitute the least efficient methods of committing suicide. 2. Negroes are less efficient than whites in suicidal behavior. 3. The efficiency of suicidal behavior increases with age. 4. The married are less efficient in suicidal behavior than the single, divorced, and widowed. 5. Males are more efficient than females in suicidal behavior. This study, by relating completed to attempted suicides, has isolated what may be important components in the suicide complex. Further study of the efficiency component, for example, along with isolation and analysis of other components such as intensity, goal orientation, etc., should serve to further the development of a theory of suicidal behavior well grounded in empirical observation. Unfortunately, limitation of data precluded analyses of these problems in the present study.