This paper has two objectives. The first is to reflect on the meaning of suicide as a sociological issue, commenting on an article by E.D. Nunes (1988) on the famous work by Durkheim. The second is to discuss the same issue within the field of public health, analyzing the contributions by the father of sociology and approaches by the fields of epidemiology, psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, highlighting the work of Brazilian authors. The paper presents information on the Brazilian epidemiological context and concludes by demonstrating that only from an analytical point of view can violent causes as a whole can be studied separately. Thus, they constantly require epistemological and epidemiological surveillance to construct indicators capable of contributing to change. This is all the more true because data on current violence need to be viewed within the context of the social crisis and changes Brazil is undergoing.
Suicide; Sociology; Public Health