Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2009
A five-year sample of suicide deaths in 82 county boroughs in England and Wales has been examined according to the age and sex of the victims. A number of demographic and other factors were chosen to test out the hypothesis that male suicides were more likely to be associated with other forms of violent death in the community and that female suicides would correlate with a number of variables measuring aspects of sociosexual life. In old age it was postulated that mental and physical illness would outweigh any environmental factors—apart from social isolation—as contributory causes to suicide by both sexes. The fmdings give limited support to the original hypothesis which needs to be checked by a sociomedical investigation of as many suicides as possible in a large number of towns.