Jumper (suicide)

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For other uses of the word, see jumper.

A jumper, in police parlance, is a person who commits suicide by jumping from a height. A frequent scenario is that the jumper will sit on an elevated highway as police attempt to "talk him down."

[edit] Cases

In August 2004 in Japan, a man jumped from the top of a high rise, crushing a 20-year-old student to death[1].
Perhaps the most infamous instance of "jumping" involved the September 11, 2001 attacks, when people who leapt from the burning World Trade Center were captured on film. (see The Falling Man).

Potential jumpers are sometimes encouraged to commit suicide by observers, an effect known as "suicide baiting." (see Suicide Baiting correlational study (Mann, 1981))

On August 28, 2001, a woman in Seattle was taunted into jumping from the Ship Canal Bridge by commuters who had been stopped while police tried to talk her down.^[1]^[2]
In 2001, police were trying to persuade a man not to jump from an overpass into traffic, when someone began transmitting on the police frequency the Van Halen song Jump, whose lyrics repeat "Might as well jump! ... Go ahead, jump!" The man was talked down safely.^[3]

[edit] In popular culture

Third Eye Blind's song, "Jumper" addresses the act of jumping to commit suicide in their 1997 self-titled album.

In Lethal Weapon Martin Riggs tricks a potential jumper into being handcuffed to him and then leaps onto a safety net, taking the would-be suicidal down with him. Both survive.