Lessons to be Learned about Suicide Numbers in Kosovo: Comparative Aspect and Discrepancy Between Police Reports and Official Data
Vjosa Jonuzi-Shala
Suicide is the violent and voluntary termination of one’s life, undertaken by a mentally healthy person who, in the condition of pathological affect, experiences an internal battle with suicidal motives. By committing the suicidal act, the individual achieves his or her primary goal: escaping from oneself. This research has three primary goals. First, to report the number of suicides in Kosovo according to official data; Second, to compare the number of suicides in Kosovo and other countries, particularly Croatia and Serbia; Third, to present the discrepancy between the police and the official data, which are significantly different from each other, and to lay the path for the continuation of research about suicides in Kosovo since there were only two studies conducted in Kosovo throughout the decades. The research topics are answered using data analysis from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, scientific literature, research conducted in Kosovo, papers presented at international conferences, and interviews with the former Director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Pristina. Results of the research show that the total number of suicides in Kosovo from 2002–2019, regardless of the increase and decrease of numbers throughout the years, has not become a phenomenon as claimed. Kosovo continues to have a low suicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants compared to other countries.
Keywords:Suicide, Kosovo, Police data, Official data, Statistical difference
