A MEDICO-LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE SUICIDE PHENOMENON IN ROMANIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY VS. THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY
A. Ciobanu
Abstract: Background. Suicides are a common occurrence in all types of human societies throughout time. Each suicide is a singular event that disrupts and influences in a negative manner the lives of those that survive the person that kills themselves. Methods. Data collected in two important medico-legal books are analyzed, Professor’s Nicolae Minovici “Studiu asupra Spanzurarei (Etude du Pendaison, Study of Hangings), 1904 and Professor’s Teodor Vasiliu “Problema Sinuciderilor – in cadrul unor noui statistice”, (The issue of suicides – in the context of new statistics), 1939 as much as medico-legal PHD thesis on various topics and titles of suicides and other documents from the National Archives. Results. By analyzing Romanian society over a time lag of one hundred years – the beginning of the 20th Century and the start of the 21st Century – we were able to clearly observe societal changes (i.e. demographics, area, attitudes, criteria of influence, etc.), including Forensic Medicine changes in the approach, reporting, statistics. Based on these we were able to draw several pertinent conclusions that can help in developing a system of coping management and the development of a prevention strategy. Conclusions. One hundred years of gap in the analysis time frame have allowed us to better observe otherwise incremental changes in the way people take their own lives in Romania, their motivation behind such desperate acts, the means employed, but also society’s response and approach. We observed a better and more reliable reporting of quantitative events, however, we also have seen a deterioration of the qualitative data available in central reporting. Keywords: Suicide, analysis, 20th century, 21st century, discrepancy of reporting, statistics
, 1904 and Professor’s Teodor Vasiliu “Problema Sinuciderilor – in cadrul unor noui statistice”, (The issue of suicides – in the context of new statistics), 1939 as much as medico-legal PHD thesis on various topics and titles of suicides and other documents from the National Archives.<br />Results. By analyzing Romanian society over a time lag of one hundred years – the beginning of the 20th Century and the start of the 21st Century – we were able to clearly observe societal changes (i.e. demographics, area, attitudes, criteria of influence, etc.), including Forensic Medicine changes in the approach, reporting, statistics. Based on these we were able to draw several pertinent conclusions that can help in developing a system of coping management and the development of a prevention strategy.<br />Conclusions. One hundred years of gap in the analysis time frame have allowed us to better observe otherwise incremental changes in the way people take their own lives in Romania, their motivation behind such desperate acts, the means employed, but also society’s response and approach. We observed a better and more reliable reporting of quantitative events, however, we also have seen a deterioration of the qualitative data available in central reporting.&redirect_uri=http://rjlm.ro/index.php/arhiv/866)