Critical Article Review
CJUS 321
Liberty University
In this article it expresses to its readers the significance of juvenile suicide and it’s causes.
All too often adolescents are subjected to troubled household’s especially being that about 40 to
50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce and the divorce rate for subsequent
marriages is even higher. These same adolescents are subjected to the pressures from their peers
to fit in by participating in sex, drugs and countless other delinquent activities; but the Bible
kindly reminds us to stir clear of following others, especially those that participate in evil doings.
Exodus 23:2 “You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you are called to testify in a
dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. This review focuses on recent
developments in understanding the epidemiology and risk factors for adolescent suicide and
suicidal behavior. It is very often that Juveniles are facing unseen depression, drug abuse, family
factors and bullying.
Psychological autopsy studies have shown a substantial link between clinical depression
and suicide in adolescence with up to 60% of adolescent suicide victims having a depressive
disorder at the time of death. Substance abuse disorders contribute substantially to risk of
suicide, especially in older adolescent males when co-occurring with mood disorder or disruptive
disorders. There has been a recent examination of the relationship between heavy episodic
drinking (HED) and adolescent suicide attempts. Researchers found that adolescents who were
13 years or younger and who participated in HED were at 2.6 times greater risk of reporting a
suicide attempt as compared to those who did not participate. Lastly, at such a young age
bullying is at an all time high. Bullying has come a long way from the big mean kid at the
playground and has extended to cyberspace which can occur through emails, texting on cell
phones, and posts on internet social sites. For both boys and girls, those in the bully-victim
trajectory showed significantly higher levels of self-harm than their same-sex counterparts.
In comparison, Ruddell and Thomas focus on adolescent suicide rates that occur within
correctional settings, and the studies that have consistently shown that incarcerated juveniles
have a higher level of suicide risk and completed suicides compared to the general youth
population. On the other hand, the article Epidemiology of Youth Suicide and Suicidal Behavior
focuses more on the general factors of juvenile suicide rates within all the juvenile population.
While both the book and the article take on a different standpoint on juvenile suicide, they both
have the same prevalence due to the facts that are presented in each of these two. In both the
book and the article, suicide rates are contributed by substance abuse, physical abuse, and mental
health factors. The prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in youth is high, with
14.5% of the 9th to 12th grade students in the U.S. in 2007 reporting suicidal ideation and 6.9%
reporting at least one suicide attempt during the previous year can be supported by each of these
two sources.
While reading informative information the reader is looking for a reason to continue
reading what is being presented to them. If the information is bland then the reader will have a
harder time wanting to obtain the information. The author of this article come from a convincing
standpoint, he or she has makes sure they have done an extensive amount of research on the topic
of Adolescent Suicide and provides plenty of sources to back the facts that are given in this
article. For instance, the author finds it most important to be able to show his or her readers of
the important factors that does contribute to suicide amongst adolescents; factors such as
psychopathology, depression, family factors and even bullying. This author gets his readers
involved in the facts that are presented by even including charts and other visual evidence to get
and keep the readers attention regarding this topic.
The logistics of this article are very substantial simply because the author provides the
reader with facts to support the topic that is being discussed. For instance how many times have
there been a juvenile suicide on the news due to bullying, physical abuse and substance abuse.
Just in this last week a ten-year-old little girl committed suicide because she was being severely
bullied by her peers. The factors that the author of this article presents makes a humongous
amount of sense because we have all knew of or heard of a young person that has committed
suicide for any one of the mentioned reasons.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people in the U.S. and represents
a significant public health problem worldwide Adolescent suicide in the general population is a
national tragedy. The suicide rate among children and adolescents in the U.S. has increased
dramatically in recent years and has been accompanied by substantial changes in the leading
methods of youth suicide, especially among young girls. Juvenile suicide in the united states is a
persistent problem. While reasons for each suicide is different, there are very strong relationships
between completed suicides and rates of mental illness, physical, sexual and emotional abuse;
delinquency and a history of self-harm and suicidal behavior (Ruddell and Thomas, 2009).
I definitely agree with the author of this article simply because of the supported evidence
that was presented and also what is made known through news, and social media. The most
agreeable facts that the author mentioned was the way in which the juveniles commit suicide.
Guns have been the leading weapons that juveniles use to carry out their suicide. Firearms have
traditionally been the leading suicide method among U.S. youth, followed by
hanging/suffocation, and self-poisoning. Recent studies reveal that firearms are much more likely
to be in the homes of suicide completers than controls and that if a gun is in the home, it is highly
likely to be used as the method of suicide.
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