Suicide

Durkheim, Suicide, and Religion: Toward a Network Theory of Suicide Author(s): Bernice A. Pescosolido and Sharon Georgianna Reviewed work(s): Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Feb., 1989), pp. 33-48 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095660 . Accessed: 09/04/2012 12:51

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DURKHEIM, SUICIDE, AND RELIGION: TOWARD A NETWORK THEORY OF SUICIDE*

BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO SHARON GEORGIANNA

IndianaUniversity

SeattlePacificUniversity

This paper redirects debates over the religion-suicide link away from specific empiricalquarrels to a considerationof Durkheim'sgeneral proposition regarding religion's protective power. We argue that his proposition must be tailored to social and historical contexts and that research must specify the underlyingsocial mechanismat work. A considerationof historical trends leads to a more detailed specificationof religions in analyses of contemporary cases, and more importantly, to an inductive elaboration of Durkheim's theoretical underpinnings.Analysis of religion's effects on United States county group suicide rates in 1970 reveals that religion continues to affect suicide rates, with Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism tending to lower rates, and InstitutionalProtestantism tending to increase them....