PO 450 Final Research Project - Alejandro Luna

Running Head: ADOLESCENT SUICIDE AND ACCOUNTABILITY 1
Coercion of Adolescent Suicide Victims in the LGBT Community and Criminal Accountability
Alejandro Luna
Notre Dame College

ADOLESCENT SUICIDE AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2
Abstract:
Recent happenings in the news lately on the subject of equal rights and protections
among American citizens regardless of particular characteristics in which people are categorized;
the struggle between both the First and Fourteenth Amendments over court cases and criminal
charges has triggered the population into astonishment, disappointment and protest across
generations and interest groups over varying issues. The highlight of this research project is to
examine external effects that play a role in the act of a person committing suicide. By gaining an
understanding of how these problems affect the suicide victims, the study aims to offer up a
more introspective analysis and understanding of the psychological state of mind behind these
suicidal victims and come to understand how these roots of their demise have been realized in
our everyday lives. This study aims to examine both the Matthew Shepard Act of 2009, the New
Jersey Statute 2C:16-1 for Bias Intimidation along with the controversies and counterarguments
held up with the right to freedom of speech and the equal protection clause of the 1st and 14th
amendments respectively. In addition to the examination of the laws put in place, a series of
short interviews were held to gain perspective on how others felt about individuals who were
provoked, influenced or conditioned into suicide by other people with misleading or clear
motivations. Along with the interviews, a survey was distributed to 27 random street passing
pedestrians and their knowledge views on coerced suicide. I hypothesize that through gatherings
of data from the conducted survey and a series of interviews, the participant’s views on people
who have “substantial influence” will match the severity of the punishments that are explicitly
established in the New Jersey Statute for bias intimidation.

Coercion of Adolescent Suicide Victims in the LGBT Community & Criminal Accountability
It was once said that if a person were to change their thoughts, they could also change
their world. Sounds simple enough, but how does one simply change their thoughts? That raises
the real challenge and question for the ages to come. The creation of suicidal thoughts among
adolescents that recognize themselves as part of the LGBT community is a thought that
definitely threatens the lives of many young American citizens. In Joetta Carr’s Campus
Violence White Paper, the adoption of the World Health Organization’s definition of violence
and gathered data over a course of 7 years presents a confrontation to the readers of various
backgrounds to demonstrate just how close we are to violence, campus-shootings, murder,
suicides and hate crimes. The study suggests how these acts may have been initiated to cause
harm to another person because of their gender, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, so Carr
asserts that “Suicides, assault, hazing and arson require us to conduct fresh analyses and create
new paradigms for preventing and decreasing all campus violence,” (Carr 305). So, how exactly
was this done?
The American College Health Association established a national health objective to
create and serve students with new programs that could improve health, reduce the number of
assaults, homicide, emotional and sexual abuse, physical fighting and weapon carrying in
addition to increasing the number of reports that are recorded for rape and attempted rape to the
police and surveys (Carr, 305). The population of students that are being covered by this
initiative stretches out to about 16 million students over 4,200 colleges and Universities
according to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 2002. It was also

reported in the study that between 1995 and 2002, students were the victims of “approximately
479,000 crimes of violence annually,” (Carr, 305).
While the study served the general populous of students across the nation, it had also
provided some very alarming statistics about members of the LGBT community as well as
debunking a few societal views these instances of hate crimes, violence and claims to assault.
Based on the study, it was found that “Male college students were twice more likely to be
victims of overall violence than fem ale students,” along with another alarming statistic that “1
out of every 14 U.S. men have been physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner,” (Carr,
306). These are some alarming statistics because they disprove the general idea that women are
most subjected to violence while suggesting that even those who identify themselves with the
LGBT community are also prone to various acts of violence.
Those who identify themselves with this particular group find themselves expressing
some form of discomfort and fear in their lives according to another statistic provided from the
study conducted by Carr. It was reported that “Twenty percent of faculty, staff, and students
surveyed feared for their physical safety because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,”
Carr 306). The results of the survey also reported that “More than one-third (36%) of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) undergraduate students have experienced harassment
within the past year,” (Carr, 306). From the series of statistics gathered, it can be argued that
there is a negative connotation of fear, discomfort or shame being associated or identified as the
LGBT community
On the grounds of murder and suicide, Carr presents another interesting dynamic in
regards to signs of behavior that could suggest someone could be recognized as dangerous to

themselves or others. It was found that individuals that fall into this category share similar
factors in terms of behavior, history and conduct. Those affiliated with this category of people
tend to exhibit characteristics of being the following:
“Socially isolated with a limited network of friends, few positive attachment to parents or family,
history of severe antisocial conduct […] endured intense and protracted pattern of perceived
bullying, ostracism or public humiliation[…] has recurring fantasies of getting even or revenge
and a coherent plan to settle scores and be the center of attention,” (Carr, 311).
These may be just a few of the characteristics identified by Carr, but how exactly does
this all relate back to the fact that people are being exposed to the thoughts of suicide and what
are the determining factors? In Garcia’s Links between Past Abuse, Suicide Ideation and Sexual
Orientation among San Diego College Students, a survey conducted in 3 human sexuality
courses with ages ranging from 18 to 30 to examine whether “incidence of physical, sexual, or
emotional abuse” was found to be higher among LGBT youth than among heterosexual youth
(Garcia, 9). The group originally hypothesized that gay/bisexual men were at an increased risk
for suicide ideation, and the survey will come to provide the answer to this question (Garcia, 12).
Students were left to anonymously take the survey at 2 different educational institutions along
with a survey to be returned by mail. To ensure there was an appropriate amount of LGBT
participants, the researchers recruited people of the LGBT community at those locations and had
them distribute the surveys to their fellow companions that identify with the group.
A total of 155 completed surveys returned, and the generated data had much to say about
both groups identified in the survey. From their results, they confirmed that “gay/bisexual
individuals were 2.9 times more likely to think about committing suicide than homosexuals,”

(Garcia, 10). A more intense analysis of this information determined that “71% of
lesbian/bisexual women […] reported past suicidal ideation,” compared to the 39% of
heterosexual women that were recorded in the survey. From these statistics, it was determined
that lesbian/bisexual women were “3.9 times more likely to have considered suicide” (Garcia 10)
than their heterosexual counterparts.
Garcia’s study was able to successfully reveal some connections among the topics of
abuse, suicidal ideation and sexual orientation, which brought about yet another interesting
conclusion. He found that LGBT individuals reported suicidal ideation more often than
heterosexuals. In addition to that newfound conclusion, it was also determined from the data
analysis that “gay/bisexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to report unwanted
sexual touching,” (Garcia 11). From examining the aspects of the survey that was conducted by
Garcia and his group members, it was able to successfully provide a series of connections that
help further understand how the LGBT community struggles with the issue of suicide and
emphasizes the importance of receiving the necessary support and help that is needed.
Human sexuality is a rather complex idea to understand because there an immense
amount of factors that plays into the conditioning of sexuality as well as the mental state of an
individual. Thompson’s Suicidal Ideation in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Recent Adverse
Experiences from the Journal of Adolescence sets its aim on understanding how adverse
experiences are associated with suicide ideation of high-risk 16 year olds along with the extent at
which adverse experiences are related to suicide ideation. It is mentioned with great importance
by Thompson how “suicide is the third leading cause of death in youth[…] 12% of all deaths of
youth aged 15 to 24[…] youths under 25 commits suicide every 2 hours,” (Thompson 175) and

how suicide in general has become known as one of the most significant health problems being
faced today.
The methods in which the research was conducted used a study over an 8 year period of
time, examining specimens of reported children who had been faced with maltreatment.
Thompson mentions that research has provided some evidence that “adverse experiences can
predispose youth to risk for suicidal ideation,” (Thompson 176) and some factors mentioned that
have links to suicidal ideation are child maltreatment, exposure to witnessed violence and
frequent family moves. These kinds of adverse experiences along with a series of others
mentioned in the text have the chance of being dealt with even up into adulthood.
Using the LONGSCAN process, five sites located in regions across the United States
were established to recruit the samples of children that were classified as being a part of
maltreated environments. These individuals ranged from age 4 up to that of 16 in which they
were interviewed every 2 years to record adverse experiences that life has placed in front of the
individuals via interviews and also look back on the children’s records that were maintained by
child protective services. There was a total survey of 1354 youth participants, and of those, 740
(54.7%) of them completed the survey of suicidal ideation by age 16 (Thompson, 177). Through
the process of the study, suicide ideation, witnessed violence, instability, psychological distress,
externalization/internalization of problems, risky behaviors and future expectations were
addressed in the interviews.
After examining the factors presented by Thompson and his group, it was determined that
there was a correlation between witnessed violence and suicidal ideation. Any of the seven forms
of violence reported in the interviews were recorded of either non-family member or immediate

family forms of violence. The data shows that in most cases, the lack of a stable home
environment along with domestic issues at home can expose youth to violence and other forms
of maltreatment, and doesn’t only hold true to violence, but also exposure to sexual, physical and
emotional abuse in the home.
Psychological functioning of the child and the psychological distress that is placed upon
the youth gives opportunity for suicidal ideation to arise. The group measured the indicators for
psychological distress through symptoms of “depressed mood, anger, anxiety, dissociation, and
post-traumatic stress,” (Thompson 179). Other factors that were considered when measuring the
distress involved referred to whether the problems were being internalized or externalized in the
youth’s environment. To internalize the distress brought anxiety, depression and instances of
social withdrawal, while externalizing the distress promoted aggressiveness, delinquency, and
forms of risky behaviors (Thompson 179).
It seems that at the age of 16, the adolescent youth is capable of being able to
communicate and recall instances in which there were forms of violence or other forms of
behavior that could affect their sense of mind and thoughts of suicidal ideation. In addition to the
studies of the distress and risky behaviors, the youth were also subjected to questions of future
expectations to understand where their mindsets stood. Through the use of positive and negative
questions in regards to the futures, the interviewed 16 year olds could have their responses
measured.
From the results that were gathered by the group, there were two independent factors that
played a significant role in the ideation of suicide among the adolescent youth in the research
study - physical abuse and psychological abuse. According to the research results, “physical

abuse was associated with more than doubled likelihood of suicidal ideation and psychological
abuse was associated with more than a tripled likelihood of suicidal ideation,” (Garcia, 181).
This essentially supported the claim that there is a very strong association with suicidal
ideation and adverse experiences in the areas of these two forms of maltreatment. It was also
understood that “psychological functioning is a key mediator of the effects of particular adverse
experiences on suicidal behavior,” (Thompson 182) and that the externalized methods of
behavior from the psychological distress have somewhat predictive value on the ideation of
suicide rather than the act of committing suicide itself.
From reviewing these three different case studies, the basis for the argument to be
presented makes the notion that individuals that have “substantial influence” on someone’s act of
suicide should be held accountable with criminal charges. Looking back at the studies, it has
been demonstrated that as age progresses and the mind begins to develop, many external factors
and adverse experiences can easily manipulate a person with a fragile state of mind into
engaging in self-destructive and harmful behaviors. Looking at what’s been reported on suicide
on the national level now remains an important factor in understanding of how suicide does more
harm to not only the person, but others as well.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) presents a series informational
statistics in their Facts and Figures portion on their website in regards to suicide statistics in the
United States. As of 2012, there was an average of 12.5 suicides per 100,000 people, an increase
from the initial death rate of 10.4 suicides per 100,000 in 2000 (ASFP, 2014). Lately, the suicide
rate has been about 4 times higher than that among women, with a suicide rate of 20.3 for men

and 5.4 for women, and for those who died by suicide in 2012 – 78.3% were male and 21.7%
were female (ASFP, 2014).
An interesting aspect to the statistics provided by the ASFP is that suicides may impose
an economic impact on society. According to this group, “the cost of suicide in 2005 was
estimated to be $34.6 billion annually […] adjusted for inflation alone, this number rises to $42.2
billion,” (ASFP 2014). The most common methods of committing suicide were by firearm
(50.9%), suffocation (24.8%), poisoning (16.6%) and other methods (7.7%), which says quite a
lot about how individuals utilize what they can get and take their own lives. Suicide Attempts
that have caused non-fatal injuries have brought about an estimated $2 billion annually for
medical care and another $4.3 billion spent for indirect costs (ASFP, 2014). Besides the amount
of emotional damage that is done to families, it also places a very heavy toll on the rest of society
through medical costs to follow through with a suicide or even attempt at committing suicide.
Ever since the implementation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act of 2009 was implemented as an extension of federal hate crimes, there have been
instances in which the laws have been questioned as far as their severity of punishment, which
has made the verdict process of jurors more difficult and complex over the years with the vast
amount of critical thinking and review of cases that come to court. Essentially, the act was an
extension of previous federal hate crime laws established by the Federal Hate Crime Prevention
Act of 1969. Known as the Matthew Shepard Act (shorthanded name for the law), it holds people
accountable for inflicting a hate crime that is based on “actual or perceived gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability,” (Brandeis University, 2013).

A noteworthy incident was reported by online news reporter Robert Gavin for the
timesunion local news. In June of 2014, Albany native Marquan Mackey-Meggs was brought to
charges for the recently implemented cyber-bullying law in Albany County. The court case was
brought to the New York state Court of Appeals in regards to the limits of online expression and
whether the language he posted was offensive or illegal (Gavin, 2014). Through the use of social
media (Facebook in particular), Mackey Meggs created a page that blatantly described some of
his peers and made offensive remarks and rumors against these people.
Initially, he was charged with 8 counts of violating the county’s cyber bullying law, and
the defense argued that the Mackey-Meggs freedom of speech rights were protected in this case
due to the First Amendment (Gavin, 2014). It was presented in this case that the defendant had
the intentions to inflict “vicious, life altering attacks on fellow students for the express purpose
of humiliating them,” and that “it was his desire to inflict harm on his victims that got him
convicted of a crime, not his desire to enter into the marketplace of ideas,” (Gavin 2014).
Mackey-Meggs pleaded guilty to a single count of cyber-bullying and posted false sexual
information to inflict emotional harm on a minor, (Gavin 2014).
Let it be noted that the First Amendment protects an individual’s freedom of speech,
which extends to hate speech to some degree, but there are limits. Why does this matter in cases
of provoked suicide? Essentially, if a person directs intent to inflict harm or threaten another
person with the words that are expressed, a person is in violation of the right and could be
subject to charges of the law. In the areas that resonate with suicide, individuals could argue that
the First Amendment protects individuals who expose hate speech to people who may have
potential to take their own lives.

This brings about a very vague area to argue in cases because the Equal Protection Clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals from treatment that discriminates against
them for being affiliated with a particular group based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation or gender identity. This is backed and enforced with the recent developments of the
Matthew Shepard Act of 2009 – the extension of the Federal Hate Crime Prevention Act of 1969.
According to the Ethical Inquiry: September 2013 from Brandeis University’s International
Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, “in 2007, there were 1,460 hate crimes based on
sexual orientation reported to the FBI, of which 59.2 percent were classified as anti-male
homosexual bias,” (Brandeis University, 2013).
Crimes like the ones identified by the FBI have brought states to take justice into their
own hands and deal severe punishments. The State of New Jersey implemented the New Jersey
Code of Criminal Justice -2C:16-1 Bias intimidation as a means of holding violators of this law
to be taken care of on a more serious level to crack down on the various instances of
discrimination through bias intimidation. Bias intimidation is essentially the act of committing,
attempting to commit, conspiring with another to commit with the known purpose of
intimidating or inflicting some form of harm to another person based on race, color, religion,
gender, gender identity or expression, disability, sexual orientation or national origin (onecle,
2014). A hate-crime is the act itself that is committed against a person based on any of the
aforementioned above characteristics that a victim may be associated with, while bias
intimidation is the act of bringing about that hate crime in the first place.
Essentially, it punishes the perpetrator of the actions leading up to commit the hate-crime
on top of the actual hate-crime itself. It is considered a crime of the fourth degree, with the

exception in which the crime committed is of the first degree, and the term sentencing ranges
between 15 to 30 years of imprisonment with the attached hate-crime (onecle, 2014). However, it
is also interpreted and charged out to the judge’s discretion based on the severity of the hate-
crime at hand. In addition to the imprisonment time, perpetrators are also subject to taking
classes on sensitivity to diversity and civil rights along with counseling programs to reduce
violent and antisocial behavior or fines and payments to community-based programs that provide
services to victims of bias-intimidation (onecle, 2014). New Jersey was definitely a serious
bunch of individuals when the act was made effective in 2007, and one of the most controversial
cases in regards to suicide from a youth member identified as part of the LGBT community.
From the arena of members associated in the LGBT community, there are external
elements that can bring about negative affects to youth who identify with this culture of people.
One of the most noteworthy cases in the news of late was that of two college students – Dharun
Ravi and Tyler Clementi -that attended Rutgers University in the fall of 2010. According to the
Associated Press in which the article was obtained, Ravi recorded Clementi courting another
male in the room by accessing his webcam from the room of one of his friends. The word leaked
out to others about the occurrence, and two days later Clementi initiated another encounter with
his male friend. Only this time, his roommate used Twitter to let others know how to see the
encounter Clementi was having at that moment. The following evening, “Clementi jumped to his
death from the George Washington Bridge. Jurors learned that Clementi had checked his
roommates Twitter feed repeatedly in the days before his suicide,” (Associated Press, 2012).
When the case came up into the public scene, many gay-rights and anti-bullying activists
perceived the case as one that represents a challenge all young people are capable of being

exposed to. According to the news source, “Prosecutors hit Ravi with 15 criminal counts,
including invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence […] bias intimidation,” (Associated
Press, 2010. The New Jersey Statute had the potential to put Ravi behind bars for up to 10 years
in prison, although depending on the severity of the crime, it could go up to even 30 years of
imprisonment with a series of other punishments. Bias-intimidation falls under the term “hate-
crime,” and it serves a purpose of dishing out extra punishments to those who essentially “act out
of bias against the victim’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religions, national orientation or
disability,” (Associated Press, 2010) and part of what makes it difficult with this law that has
been put in place is that it brings jurors to think not only about the actions that a person has
committed, but also the motive of the suspects needs to be determined as well.
Unfortunately, Ravi was only sentenced to 30 days in jail. Some have argued that his
actions served as a form of cyber-bullying and an invasion of privacy, but at the end of the day
his actions were the catalyst to the ending of another person’s life. Many people were upset by
the terms that were served to him, and the prosecutors were eager to appeal the case. It could not
be determined whether Ravi had a motive to inflict harm or suffering on Tyler Clementi. The
injustice behind this issue is that Ravi may have had no idea how his actions have brought
mourning and loss to a family because of his inability to think before he acted. The unfortunate
side of the issues that arise like that of Tyler Clementi is that they are happening every day, and
people don’t realize what effects their words and actions could have on another person.
The analysis of this previously provided information brought about a personal study to
determine whether the severity of the New Jersey Statute would correlate with a survey that was
provided to a series of random participants of the age range of 18 to 30 years old. The survey

aimed to determine if there were individuals directly or indirectly associated with knowledge of a
suicide and through a series of conducted interviews, the severity of criminal charges to be held
against the perpetrator of a person who coerced another person to commit suicide. The following
graphs and interviews provide an amount of relevant information to determine whether these
individuals would correlate with the severity of the New Jersey Statute and if it does hold its own
as an ethical punishment law.
The first graph listed above is a demonstration of the initial question that was asked to all
the participants taking the survey. It was asked if that person had known anyone that committed
suicide. A large portion of the group that was surveyed managed to mark down that they had not
known of someone personally who committed a suicide. However, they did mention that they
know a person who knew someone that took their own life. It was interesting to see how through
other people about half of the surveyed group had known of a suicide but not the actual person.
In one of the interviews, LaQuisha gave me the opportunity so share her disheartening
experience with me when she knew her best friend had died:
“I was overcome with one of the most gut-wrenching sensations in my stomach and I felt
that my heart had sunk for no apparent reason. I thought it was strange, but it was like a string
0 5 10 15 20
Decision
Number of Partipants (N=27)
Known a Person who has
Committed Suicide
No
Yes

was cut and I was overcome with such emptiness and dread. I found out later about her dying
and I couldn’t keep myself together. I cried for weeks, and I knew I had to stay strong for her.”
This particular graph demonstrates the gender ratio of the participants in the survey. Scanning
through the results of the survey, I found that although the females may be the minority, they
managed to be the majority of individuals who confirmed that they had known an individual who
had committed suicide.
I think that was a rather interesting trend that I noticed in my survey, because in Garcia’s
survey conducted he found that 71% of lesbian/bisexual women had reported past suicidal
ideation in his survey (Garcia, 10). Not to suggest that the participants were of a particular
orientation, but through the readings it was suggested that women were more prone to having
suicidal thoughts. However, It is also understandable that there are predisposing factors and
uncontrollable factors that may sway the answers provided from the survey.
56%
44%
0%
Survey Participant's
Gender
Male Female Transgender

This particular graph was generated from potential areas in the lives of those suicide
victims and whether they thought any of these were to be a contributing factor in their act of
suicide. Surprising enough, the mental category that revolved around psychological disorders or
issues was just as high as the domestic category that revolved around the family and home areas.
Based on the results provided by the survey, it was also surprising to see how nobody thought of
choosing trauma out of the options available. In the other category, Hubert had the following to
say about his cousin:
“We thought everything was going well between the two of them. When they were around
us, they always seemed to be happy. But behind closed doors, my cousin just wasn’t feeling
himself. I remember one time he reached out to me to have a heart-to-heart, really but I didn’t
pay much mind to it then. I wish that I could have had one last talk with him.”
In that same category, Smitty had mentioned that his best friend struggled a lot to put
food on the table for his family and was always working really late. His friend jumped off a cliff
in a metro park and that was it for him.
4
1
4
1
2
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Vote Response
(N=12)
Potential Factors
Contributing Factors for Suicide
Contributing Factors for
Suicide

“McRib not only worked 3 jobs, but he supported his McNuggets. His girl Apple Pie was
always grilling him about how he could never spend time with her and the kids. I think he
couldn’t handle all of the stress. I know I couldn’t.”
When viewing the specified age of the suicide victims, there was a trend in the age
groups. The victims who committed suicide demonstrated an increase between the ages of 11
until the decline at about 19 years old. That range between the data supports the claim that
individuals are more like to terminate their lives during the age of adolescence. However,
curiosity strikes as far as how the trend spikes in adolescence, drops to a low at the entry of the
twenties and sparks back up as the age number increases. It was intriguing to find in the results
of the survey how suicide victims of 24, 28 and even 40 ended up being provided in the answers.
The graph could be having its anomaly with the spike in upper aged suicide victims out of
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
8 to
10
11
to
13
14
to
16
17
to
19
20
to
22
23+
Number of
People
(N=12)
Age of Specified Suicide
Victims
Age of Specified
Suicide Victims

chance or could suggest the likes of people handling every day struggles of life and perhaps that
it is difficult to determine who exactly is struggling with suicidal thoughts.
The signs of suicidal thoughts recorded from the survey only applied to 12 of the 27
participants. Of those twelve participants, only 2 found signs present in the person who
committed the suicide. As for others, it was found that 7 individuals reported not seeing any
signs present in the person who committed suicide. As for the last three, these individuals were
not very sure as to whether signs were present or not, due to the fact that some believed that their
behaviors were tied into their personalities. This observation from the gathered data correlates
with the conditioning and domestic issues that are faced with individuals who go through adverse
experiences in their lifetime. Conversely, that could also be considered faulty or biased if the
individuals did not know the person well enough and therefore could not necessarily understand
the normal patterns of behavior a person has.
2
7
3
0 2 4 6 8
Present
Not Present
Unsure
Responses (N=12)
Question
Options
Signs of Suicidal Thoughts / Behaviors
Present
Signs of Suicidal Thoughts /
Behaviors Present

This portion of the survey was a three-part series of questions that questioned whether a
person was subjected to some form of bullying, harassment or unwanted action, then whether the
incident was reported and if there were any disciplinary actions that occurred from reporting the
incident. Of the entire population screened for the survey, 55.6% of the surveyed participants
reported being subjected to some form of bullying, harassment or unwanted actions. Of that
group, only 40% of that group ended up reporting the issue to an administrator or authority
figure. Of that portion of the survey participants, only 33% of the participants actually found
some form of resolution or disciplinary action implemented on the perpetrator. This portion of
the survey really demonstrated a series of conclusions. There is a large amount of people who are
victims of bullying, harassment or some form of unwanted action, and there isn’t enough
disciplinary actions being implemented to resolve the issue. This issue correlates and supports
the claims established by Joetta Carr and the incidents of violence being reported on a national
level.
0
5
10
15
Surveyor Subjected to
Bullying/Harassment/Unwanted
Action (N=27)
Incident Reported (N=15)
Disciplinary Actions (N=6)
15
6
4
12
9
2
Trends in the reporting of
Harassment/Bullying/Behaviors Incidents
No Yes

After a thorough analysis of the information that was provided, individuals mentioned in
their commentary section of the survey that there should have been a moderate to severe or
maximum amount of punishment provided to the person who is proven to have “substantial
influence” over a person who may be coerced into committing suicide. The participants in the
survey correlated with the severity of the punishments offered up by the New Jersey Statute on
bias intimidation. The options of counseling sessions and therapy were very much highlighted in
the survey. In addition to that, individuals commented that it would depend on the severity of the
crime and how their actions have affected the person who decided to take their life. Jail time was
also mentioned as one of the definite punishments for the person who caused another to take
their own life.
Overall, the idea of provoked suicide is one that is difficult to clarify in the court system
because there are so many different factors and gray areas that make holding a person indirectly
accountable for a person taking their own life. The court system has recently decided to take on
the issue of assisted suicides and determine that it is up to the states to figure that out on their
own. Like this issue, coerced suicide is one issue that needs more exploration and deserves light
and clarification for those who may have lost their lives by indirect purposes. As society
continues to progress in the areas of civil rights and equality issues among those who identify
with groups and subcultures of people, the possibilities and end goal of protected rights for all is
an ideal goal to look forward to in the years to come.

Annotated Bibliography
Carr, J. L. (2007). Campus Violence White Paper. Journal of American College Health, 55(5),
304-319.
Joetta Carr, PhD. Provides a provides some groundbreaking statistics uncovered from the studies
conducted over the 4,200 colleges and universities in the United States as the American College
Health Association as it adopted a position statement to address acts of violence, bias and other
forms of human injustice. Throughout the article, Carr addresses a series of statistics and
informational data in regards to the campus communities gathered over a course of a seven year
period. The article was crucial to the development of the research paper because it provided solid
statistical information in regards to the LGBT communities and societal implications placed
upon them and other groups.
Garcia, J., Adams, J., Friedman, L., & East, P. (2002). Links between Past Abuse, Suicide
Ideation, and Sexual Orientation among San Diego College Students. Journal of American
College Health, 51(1), 9.
Jacob Garcia, MD conducted a study while in medical school to address how abuse, sexual
orientation and suicide ideation are correlated with one another. Through an anonymous
questionnaire distributed among college students in human sexuality courses to test whether
higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts among gay/lesbian/bisexual college students may
relate to a history of past child abuse than among heterosexual youth. From the survey, Garcia
was able to determine that members of the LGBT community have faced aspects of unwanted
touch, suicidal ideation and reporting of incidents. This article was crucial to the argument that I
presented because it points out a distinction among the LGBT community and their familial
relationships and past compared to heterosexual youth statistics demonstrated in the article.
Thompson, R., Proctor, L. J., English, D. J., Dubowitz, H., Narasimhan, S., & Everson, M. D.
(2012). Suicidal ideation in adolescence: Examining the role of recent adverse experiences.
Journal of Adolescence, 35(1), 175-186. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.03.003
Thompson, like the other sources cited made note that there is a link between adverse
experiences faced in life and suicidal ideation. He and his colleagues conducted an 8 year
experiment in which various categories of adverse experiences affect the mental state of a child
as they progress through life through scheduled meetings up until the patient turned 16 years old,
measuring the adverse experiences and whether suicidal ideation has come to surface. This
article was another solid piece to the research paper because it relates back to the topic at hand in
which LGBT adolescents faced with harassment, hate crimes and forms of bullying can bring
about the vulnerable state of being coaxed into committing suicide.

Dharun Ravi sentence in Rutgers webcam case renews hate crime law debate. (2012, May 22).
Retrieved November 27, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dharun-ravi-
sentence-in-rutgers-webcam-case-renews-hate-crime-law-
debate/2012/05/22/gIQAui0DiU_story.html
Associated Press released an online news article about the suicide of Tyler Clementi after his
roommate posted a video on the internet and utilized social media to spread the suicide victim’s
sexual orientation. The article raised the controversy about the minimal punishment for the crime
Ravi received, but also how perhaps shined light on the idea that perhaps the New Jersey Statutes
for bias intimidation are potent. This article helped me in the process of weighing out both
positions of the argument.
Facts and Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2014, from https://www.afsp.org/understanding-
suicide/facts-and-figures
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention provides its latest figures and statistics from
the Center of Disease Control and Prevention Data & Statistics Fatal Injury Report of 2012 to
really gain an understanding of how Suicide plays a part in American society today. This
information was useful for the research paper because it provided solid statistics on a national
level to understand how big of an issue suicide really is and how it affects other aspects of our
lives.
New Jersey Statutes - Title 2C The New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice - 2C:16-1 Bias
intimidation. (2014, March 22). Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://law.onecle.com/new-
jersey/2c-the-new-jersey-code-of-criminal-justice/16-1.html
Law blog Onecle provided the New Jersey Statutes for Bias Intimidation that was enacted to
buckle down on cases that have motives to bias an individual based on a series of characteristics.
The webpage was used as a means of having the actual law on hand to explain how bias
intimidation is a particular charge that is placed upon those who may provoke or make others
feel threatened or uncomfortable for being of a particular minority as described in the text of the
law.
Gavin, R. (2014, June 3). Highest court to take on bullying. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Highest-court-to-take-on-bullying-5526444.php
Online news writer Robert Gavin reports on a case in Albany, New York of a minor attending
high school that used Facebook to cyberbully a wide range of his peers. The defendant used the
Freedom of Speech claim under the 1st amendment to try to toss out the case. This case was
important to the assignment because it distinguished that there words that are directed to cause
harm with intention are not protected under the 1st amendment, and critics of the argument would
suggest that hate speech still protects the one who spoke it towards the LGBT adolescent is not
liable for the reactions for the actions the receiver acts upon.
What are the Ethics of Hate Crime Legislation? (2013, September 1). Retrieved October 15,
2014, from http://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/ethicalinquiry/2013/September.html

The monthly publishing of Ethical Inquiry from Brandeis University’s International Center for
Ethics, Justice and Public Life gets down to the facts in this well thought out article. It addresses
the federal expansion of hate crime sentencing thanks to the Matthew Shepard Act of 2009. It
provides a rather thorough analysis of how bias intimidation not only affects members of the
LGBT community, but it also pours into other minority areas that may fall vulnerable to bias
intimidation. The posting distinguished the American perspective that all people must be treated
fairly, but also points out how similar crimes could have different outcomes due to the hate crime
legislation.

PO 450 Final Research Project - Alejandro Luna

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