Chapter
Suicides in West Berlin (1981-1985): Reliability of Data (IN: Current Research on Suicide and Parasuicide, ed. by S D Platt and N Kreitman)
Heim N
In this study, 3 sociologists examined police files of undetermined causes of death, evident suicides, accidents & undetermined homicides. They found that the official suicide statistics underestimated by about 25%. The authors outline other studies concerning underreporting of suicide rates. They also discuss the patterns in official suicide rates, concluding that there are no systematic misreporting errors. (VM)