Legal and Administrative Influences on the English Suicide Rate Since 1900

We examined the hypothesis that changes in the suicide rate of England & Wales since 1900 are an artefact of changes in the process of classifying violent deaths. 4 potential sources of artefact were considered: the reliability of the procedure for investigating suspected suicides; coding by the Office of Population Censuses & Surveys; changes in the law; High Court decisions on suicide. None of these can explain the large observed fluctuations in the suicide rate.