Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ttidcc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) Newsgroups: net.suicide,net.games.frp Subject: Re: 60 Minutes' D&D Segment Message-ID: <729@ttidcc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 15:18:02 EDT Article-I.D.: ttidcc.729 Posted: Mon Sep 23 15:18:02 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 10:50:55 EDT References: <1600@trwrba.UUCP> <2356@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.UUCP (The Polymath) Organization: The Cat Factory Lines: 35 Xref: linus net.suicide:688 net.games.frp:1670 Summary: In article <2356@sdcrdcf.UUCP> barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) writes: >60 Minutes recently had a rather biased segment on Dungeons and Dragons as >a possible trigger of teen-age suicide. I listened carefully and managed >to come up with two facts admidst all the anecdotal, unsubstantiated >generalizations: > 1. About three millions youngsters play D&D > 2. 60 Minutes did a LOT of research and came up with 28 suicides >that might have been related to D&D over FIVE years. > >Does anyone out there know what the average US teenage suicide rate per >million is? I'd like to know if D&D players are higher or lower than >average. I just called the L.A. Suicide Prevention Center and got some figures for L.A. County for fiscal year '79/'80 (best they could do on short notice). During that period, out of 1088 total suicides defined as such by the County Coroner's office, 64 were teenagers. Figuring the population of the county then as roughly 5 million (?) with 19% of that between 11 and 19 (according to a professional demographer friend of mine) that's an annualized rate of, roughly, 6.74 per hundred thousand. 60 Minutes' figures give an annualized rate of .19 per hundred thousand (ignoring the probability that some of their cases would have committed suicide anyway). That would make D&D players less likely to suicide than the average teen- ager by a factor of 35 to 1. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp(+)TTI Common Sense is what tells you that a ten 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. pound weight falls ten times as fast as a Santa Monica, CA 90405 one pound weight. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe