Emile Durkheim's 1897 analysis of suicide.

Emile Durkheim, a sociologist in 1897, was a pioneer in his field. He set out to explain why some social groups have higher suicide rates than others. His explanation for this was that some groups are not as well socially integrated as others. Social integration is the attachments, ties, and shared bonds one has with others. Durkheim believed that the less social integration one had, the more likely they were to commit suicide. Some specific cases …

…studies on the cause of suicide in terms of social integration paved the way for others to examine the question of what causes some groups to have higher rates of suicide. While he was wrong at times, his theories on social integration were correct. In fact, this principle can apply to many modern suicide statistics, such as the increased suicide rate among gays. It quite clear that social integration plays a large role in suicide.