US army suicides hit 26-year high:
At least 99 American soldiers killed themselves last year, the US army's highest suicide rate in 26 years, according to a new report.Liberal bloggers have been all over this, rightly arguing that continual combat stress can only have destructive results for soldiers. The question I want to know is... what was it about 1981 that made life so difficult in the US military?
The rate of 17.3 suicides per 100,000 soldiers compares with 12.8 in 2005, officials said.
Twenty-eight of the soldiers who took their own life last year did so while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The army listed failed relationships, legal and financial issues and work stress as factors behind the suicides.
Two soldiers' deaths from last year are still being investigated. If confirmed as suicide, the figure for 2006 will climb to 101.
The highest number recorded was 102 in 1991, the year of the Gulf War - but more soldiers were on active duty then, meaning the rate per 100,000 soldiers was lower than in 2006.
1 comment:
So many statistical reports are like that. A 26 year high but no facts are shown for 26 years ago. So I assume the journalist is perhaps 26!!!
The original report http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007
list some mental disorder conditions - perhaps the selection criteria for US Army are not as good as years ago
But are the numbers really significant
http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html
reports some 2001 results for US population
such as Males .............24,672..........67.6.........17.6..........2.1
not sure if this decade comparison will come out formatted but look at the original site
Army results seem to be similar trend wise to general USA
Group 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Males 20.4 20.1 19.6 19.9 19.8 19.8 19.3 18.7 18.6 17.6 17.5 17.6
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