Durkheim’s Regulation Theory on the relationship between suicide and divorce

Abstract

This article presents Durkheim’s analyses of conjugal anomic suicide within the framework of his theory of marital regulation. According to this theory, marriage brings numerous benefits to men but not necessarily to women. Conversely, the destabilisation of the marital institution disadvantages married men more than married women. Another characteristic noted is that the male suicide rates are consistently higher than the female rates. The article also synthesises and analyses the work on suicide of sociologists after Durkheim, whose findings generally confirm his theory. Furthermore, the severe phenomenon of suicide among young rural women in certain Eastern countries such as China and India, referred to as “protest suicide”, has led to a female suicide rate higher than that of males (in China), and to a convergence of suicide rates between the two sexes (in India). This enriches the typology of suicides developed by Durkheim.