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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.

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