September is Suicide Prevention Month, which means so many people are going to be posting the National Suicide Hotline on all their social media pages to remind their friends and followers that they matter and they deserve to feel worthy. Suicide is defined as death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result and a suicide attempt is defined as a non-fatal, self-directed, potentially injurious behavior with the intent to die as a result, but might not result in an injury or death. Suicidal ideation is also common, known to refer to thinking about, considering, or planning a suicide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WISQARS Leading Cause of Deaths Report, in 2016 alone, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 45,000 people, suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34 (under unintentional injury) and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 54 (under unintentional injury, Malignant Neoplasms, and Heart Disease), and there were more than twice as many suicides in the United States as there were homicides. There were 44,965 suicides in the United States in 2016, but 19,362 homicides that same year.

With these horrid statistics kept in mind, many people may be thinking to themselves, "no one should deserve this," and they will be absolutely right, but there are also a lot of people who believe that there are certain people who deserve to be driven to suicide, specifically criminals. I have seen a lot of people say that they would like to drive criminals to suicide, whether it be murderers, rapists, pedophiles, thieves, or any other criminal I did not mention. While I would never condemn this kind of behavior, these kinds of people do not need to be driven to suicide; rather the criminal justice system should be improved so these kinds of people get the sentences they deserve.

Many people like to say that they care about mental health awareness and suicide prevention, but also say that criminals need to be driven to suicide because the less of them there are, the better. I do agree that the fewer criminals we have in society, the better it will be, but this comes from not letting them get away with their crimes and better parenting for future children. If more parents raised their children to be good citizens and good people, there would be fewer criminals in this world.

Mental health and suicide prevention is a critical issue that is affecting so many people today and saying that certain people deserve to be driven to suicide does not make you an advocate for mental health or suicide prevention. You can believe that criminals need to face the consequences of their actions and need to be punished better without believing they should be driven to suicide. This Suicide Awareness Month, remember that nobody deserves to be driven to suicide, but everyone deserves help.