Escalating male suicide
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,44183,00.html
Tuesday, January
29, 2002
By
Wendy McElroy
In the early
morning hours of Jan. 7, 43-year-old Derrick K. Miller walked up to a security
guard at the entrance to the San Diego Courthouse, where a family court had
recently ruled against him on overdue child support.
Clutching court papers in one hand, he drew
out a gun with the other. Declaring: "You did this to me," he fatally
shot himself through the skull.
Miller's suicide is symbolic of a frightening
global trend: an alarming rise in male suicides. According to a round of
studies conducted in North America, Europe and Australia, one reason for the
increase may be the discrimination fathers encounter in family courts,
especially the denial of access to their children.
If a similar rise in female suicides was
occurring, a public crusade would demand a remedy. Yet the extraordinarily high
rate of male suicide is rarely discussed.
What are the statistics? According to a 1999 surgeon
general's report, suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in America,
with men four times more likely to kill themselves than women.
The prevalence of male suicide is not
restricted to North America. An Australian study offered similar statistics. Of 2,683 suicides
in Australia in 1998, 2,150 were males, making suicide the second leading cause
of death among 25- to 44-year-old men. The Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare reports
that the suicide rate for men aged 20 to 39 years has risen by 70
percent over the last two decades.
Statistics
from Ireland and the United Kingdom indicate rates of male suicide as high as
five times that of women. Indeed, a recent study found that suicide was the leading cause of death for Irish men
between 15-34 years old.
The research also points to a probable cause.
According to sociologist Augustine Kposow of the University of California at
Riverside, divorce and loss of children is a factor. "As far as the
[divorced] man is concerned, he has lost his marriage and lost his children and
that can lead to depression and suicide," Kposow advises.
The Australian study's suggested reasons for
some of the suicides include "marriage breakdown."
"There is evidence to suggest that many
men sense they are being discriminated against in family court
judgements," the study says. Cut off from their children, divorced men
experience heightened "frustration and isolation."
Yet, the motivation for male suicide remains a
matter for speculation because little research has focused on the subject.
Telling the stories of such forgotten men has
been left largely to fathers' rights Web sites such as Dads4Kids.
There you read about Warren Gilbert who died
of carbon monoxide poisoning, clutching a letter from the Child Protective
Service. Or Martin Romanchick — the New York City police officer who hanged
himself after being denied access due to charges brought by his ex-wife, which
the court found to be frivolous.
Or Darrin White, a Canadian who hanged himself
after being denied access because he could not pay child support that was twice
his take-home pay. His 14-year-old daughter wrote a letter to the
Canadian prime minister in which she pointed to "the frustration and
hopelessness caused in dealing with Canada's family justice system" as the
"biggest factor" in her father's death.
"I know my father was a good man and a
good father. ... He obviously reached a point where he could see that justice
was beyond his reach and for reasons that only God will know, decided that
taking his life was the only way to end his suffering," Ashlee White
wrote. Ashlee signed the letter "In Memory of My Loving Father."
Are family court systems deeply biased against
fathers? I believe so. But discussing the matter is almost a taboo. How
prevalent is the silence? When did you last hear a discussion of whether a
"father" should have any voice in abortion? Even raising the issue
draws derisive and dismissive responses. Yet if men are forced to bear legal
responsibility for children, then it is not absurd to ask whether they should
have some prerogatives as well.
The point here is not how the question should
be answered. The point is that the question should be asked.
Derrick Miller may be a poor choice as a cause celebre for fathers' rights. His
suicide may have been triggered by mental illness or by drug abuse. Yet Miller
is symbolic not merely of the discrimination against fathers but also of the
discrimination encountered by men's mental health issues.
For example, the National Organization for
Women showed no reluctance in championing the mentally disturbed Andrea Yates
who killed her five children — a much more heinous act. But Yates is a woman
and will be viewed as a de facto "victim"
by a significant portion of society — even in the shadow of her infants' dead
bodies. Conversely, Miller is a man and he carries one of the greatest social
stigmas: deadbeat dad. Thus, even the dramatic circumstances of his suicide
prompted only six paragraphs in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The stakes are too high for the media to remain
disinclined to comment. As men's rights activist James R. Hanback Jr. remarked
in an article about Miller, "No matter who you are or where you live,
chances are there is a man in your life ... who has been through some of the
pain and anguish associated with divorce, child custody, or child support
battles."
Male suicide must be confronted honestly
before America follows the way of Ireland, before suicide becomes the leading
cause of death in young men. And, perhaps, in a man you know and love.
Wendy McElroy is the editor
of ifeminists.com. She is
the author and editor of many books and articles, including the forthcoming
anthology Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century (Ivan R.
Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in Canada.
http://www.ifeminists.com/introduction/editorials/2002/0115a.html
|
|
We have
provided for the survival of man against all enemies except his fellow man. Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names. On Jan. 7, a 43-year-old man, apparently depressed about
a recent overdue child support ruling against him, shot himself to death on
the steps of the San Diego Courthouse. According to reports in the San Diego Union Tribune, Derrick K. Miller walked
up to a security guard around 6:25 a.m. and began raving about injustices
thrust upon him by the legal system. Court papers in one hand, he produced a
handgun with the other and fired one shot into his skull, instantly killing
himself. What the six-paragraph story in the Union Tribune doesn’t say, however, is
that Miller’s actions represent a small sampling of a disturbing trend all
over the world. Men who are fed up with what they see as injustices perpetrated
upon them by court systems that, in cases of child custody, child support,
and divorce, generally favor women, are increasingly taking their own lives. The problem has become so widespread, in fact, that some
governments—Australia’s, for instance—have implemented new programs aimed at
getting suicidal men help in overcoming the urge to end it all. Likewise,
official studies from both Australia and Ireland within the past year have
connected an alarming increase in male suicide in their respective countries
to the breaking down of family structure, and a perception by men of
wrong-doing to them perpetrated by the legal system. According to the Irish study, five times more men than
women in that country die from suicide each year, and more than 40 percent of
those are men under 30. The principle cause of death for men between the ages
of 15-34 in Ireland, in fact, is suicide. Once upon a time, more men died
from traffic accidents. The Irish report further stated that the "strong
protective effect of marriage" was confirmed as prevention for male
suicide. Single, separated, divorced, or widowed individuals all had higher
suicide rates. In similar fashion, the Australian study found that
younger men in that country were particularly susceptible to suicide upon
divorce or separation from their children. "Recent research into male suicide in this age
group revealed that males in the 'separation phase' of a marriage break-up
were most at risk of suicide, compared with widowed or divorced males,"
the report’s authors wrote. "Marriage breakdown is a significant
characteristic of male suicide in the 24-39 age bracket. The anxiety and
emotional pain of separation and divorce appear to effect [sic] men
differently. Two studies, two separate nations, and a plethora of
social scientists have thus apparently confirmed what individual families
have known and news reports have ignored for years: family courts all over
Western society are unfair to men, and some men are dying as a result. In the
U.S. alone, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control estimate that
approximately 80 percent of all suicides every year are by men. Compared to
homicide rates recorded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of
suicides every year in this country is about 32 percent higher than the
number of homicides. Although both the Irish and Australian studies suggest
that mental health professionals should focus more on men and getting men to
help themselves out of the depressions which result in suicide, perhaps a
greater contributor to men’s well-being would be to reform family courts.
Perhaps it’s time to change things so that men going through divorce, child
custody battles, and child support hearings are given a fair shake. Even in these days of Western feminine liberation there
are men who pay alimony. Why? Women in Western culture have been welcomed
into the workplace. Everyone knows a woman can make her own ends meet if she
so chooses. If, in divorce, the female is absolved from all marital
obligations to her former husband, why should he still be forced to be her
breadwinner? Likewise, child support is no longer about providing for
children. It is a multi-million dollar industry designed to generate revenue
for individual state governments, at least in the United States. Visit any
fathers advocates forum on the Internet and you’ll find a variety of horror
stories about child support rulings which deprive a man of his own
livelihood, while his ex-wife maintains custody of the children, denies him
visitation, and has married another man who is also providing for her. Adding insult to injury, there’s even a Yahoo! Group
dedicated to informing women about how to achieve this particular lifestyle.
It’s called "Ex-husband Is Now My Slave" and currently has more
than 900 members. You can find it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ex-husband_is_now_my_slave/. So if the family court situation is the root cause of so
much trouble--and is creating a world where men take their own lives out of
desperation and women brag about it on the Internet--why, apparently, is
nothing being done to change it? That answer lies in the media. No matter who you are or
where you live, chances are there is a man in your life, or in your extended
family, who has been through some of the pain and anguish associated with
divorce, child custody, or child support battles. Chances are that the toll
of that situation was much greater on him than his former spouse. In America,
divorce court is routine, and fictionalized accounts of it are even broadcast
on daytime television. Unfortunately for the men involved in genuine cases,
though, the media tends to ignore the courts’ consistent discrimination
against them as simple facts of life which cannot (or should not) be changed. Miller--he who shot himself on the San Diego Courthouse
steps--is the exception which proves the rule. His case was so dramatic--and
public—as a result of his suicide that the Union
Tribune could not ignore it. But what happens now that his brief
story has been told? Will an intrepid reporter examine the suicide rates of
divorced men in San Diego and discover a pattern? Will said reporter examine
the family court system from the inside out and determine for himself whether
justice is routinely served or men routinely discriminated against? It’s not probable. Instead, the Union
Tribune reporters will do precisely what I did when I faced a
similar story as a police reporter for The
Review Appeal in Franklin, Tenn., in the mid-1990s. They’ll simply
go on about their business--writing about budgets, schools, police chases,
and criminal trials--until the next man kills himself on the courthouse steps
in similar dramatic fashion. Then they’ll write six more paragraphs about it
and move on again. That’s what good police reporters do. Sometimes I think back on that bright production day at The Review Appeal. I remember I was
writing a small two-paragraph note for what we called "The Police
Blotter" about someone who had exposed himself (and escaped police) at a
local mall. The radio scanner had been silent all afternoon and, just two
hours before we were to put the paper to bed, I heard two sentences from a
preternaturally calm female voice creep across the airwaves on the Franklin
Police Department’s frequency: "He’s on the Square. He’s got a gun to his
head." My office chair was probably still spinning as I ran out
the door. Two streets down was Public Square, the Franklin town
center where there were several shops, Franklin City Hall, and the Williamson
County Courthouse. No sooner had I turned the corner where I could see the
tall statue in the Square gleaming against the afternoon sun than I heard the
gunshot, and saw a crowd of police and emergency personnel swarm in upon the
man as his formerly seated body crumpled to the concrete. While my photographer snapped away at the scene, I talked
to witnesses and police officers. I asked where the man had come from, who he
was, and why he might have committed such an act. Some faces in the crowd told me they had seen the man
walk out of the courthouse, so while my editor continued to interview witnesses,
I went to see the Williamson County Court Clerk. There, I learned the man’s
identity and that he had spent most of the day in divorce court. After
apparently losing his job, his wife, and a battle with depression, he had
finally given up hope. The article I wrote for the paper the next day contained
all the details a good police reporter includes: who, what, when, where, and
some possible reasons why. I had quotes from the officers who worked the
scene as well as a few notes from the court filings. When I finished writing,
I walked outside and smoked a Marlboro I bummed from someone in the
production department (even though I’m not a smoker). The image of that man
with the gun played over and over in my head, and as I exhaled the stale
smoke of the cigarette from my lungs, I wondered what smoke and gunpowder
from a firearm must taste like at such close range. Sometimes I think back on that bright production day,
and I wonder why I didn’t continue to follow up on that story. I wonder why I
felt that examining that man’s case in the cold light of an objective
reporter’s eye wasn’t worth pursuing. I wonder what I might have found had I
been persistent. Most of all, though, I wonder if I might not have been
able to shed some light and create change in some small way. And maybe saved someone else’s life. That’s what a good reporter should have done. |
Date: 22 January 2002 02:03
Subject: [ukmm] CENTRE FOR PEOPLE
AT RISK FROM SUICIDE
>
>LBDscotland
>http://www.lbdscotland.org/
>
>IMNscotland
>http://www.bigglesguy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/scot.html
>May you trust your highest
power that you are exactly
>where you are meant to be....
>===================================
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_1770000/1770454.stm
>
>Centre aims to cut suicide rate
>
>The new service hopes to offer
a listening ear
>People at risk from suicide are
being offered help from a dedicated centre,
>thought to be the first of its
kind in the UK, which is opening in Glasgow.
>The unit is run by the charity
Facilitate Scotland.
>
>It says the number of people
taking their own lives in Scotland has more
than
>doubled since the 1970s.
>
>The charity's chairman is the
former Scotland, Celtic and Manchester United
>footballer, Lou Macari, whose
teenage son took his own life nearly three
>years ago.
>
>Lou Macari: Backing the
campaign
>
>Jonathan, 19, was found hanged
from a tree after he turned to drugs when
his
>own football career failed.
>
>Mr Macari, 52, currently
manager of Huddersfield FC, said the unit's
>counsellors had already managed
to reduce the number of young people using
>alcohol or drugs to ease their
distress.
>
>He now hopes the centre will allow
them to do more good work.
>
>Death rates
>
>Mr Macari said: "Scotland,
I believe, has one of the highest suicide rates
in
>the country(UK).
>
>"And obviously, having
experienced it myself I realise what affects it has
on
>those left behind.
>
>"Sometimes it can be
avoided, and with the help of Facilitate, if they can
do
>that with even one person, then
it's a plus."
>
>Many of the people who contact
Facilitate Scotland are suffering from
>bullying or debt problems.
>
>The organisation's volunteers
have had up to 500 hours special training to
>deal with the tough task.
>
>Vulnerability
>
>In October last year, an
Edinburgh University report revealed that suicide
>rates among young Scottish men
were double those in England.
>
>It also said men aged between
15 and 24 were six times more likely to take
>their own lives than women.
>
>In the last 30 years, the
number of males aged between 25 and 34 who have
>taken their lives has leapt by
245%.
>
>Facilitate Scotland's George
Hunter said: "We are all vulnerable and
anything
>can trigger off the thought of
suicide.
>
>"All it takes is for that
thought to get out of hand and for the person to
>feel that there is no other
option for them but to commit suicide."
> WATCH/LISTEN
>
> ON THIS STORY
>
> Forbes McFall reports
>"The suicide rate in
Scotland is rising"
>
>
>
>
>See also:
>
>
>09 Oct 00 | Scotland
>Alarming rise in suicide rate
>27 Sep 00 | Health
>'Suicide risk' for doctors and
nurses
>16 Aug 00 | Health
>Voice changes 'predict' suicide
risk
>06 Jul 00 | Health
>Suicide 'linked to' the moon
>13 Oct 99 | Health
>Depression
>29 Apr 99 | UK
>Football manager's son found
hanged