Jumper (suicide)

This young woman was persuaded not to jump off a building in Dallas, Texas by police officers.^[1]

A jumper, in police and media parlance, is a person who plans to fall (or already has fallen) from a potentially deadly height, usually with intent to commit suicide. The term includes successfully-fatal suicides and also those people who survive the attempt. The latter are often left with major injuries and permanent disabilities from the impact-related injuries. ^[2] A frequent scenario is that the jumper will sit on an elevated highway or building-ledge as police attempt to talk them down. Potential jumpers are sometimes encouraged to jump by observers, an effect known as "suicide baiting".^[3]

Popular songs "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind, "Spring" by Rammstein, "Jumpers" by Sleater-Kinney and "Summertime Sadness" by Lana Del Rey incorporate "jumping" as their main theme.^[4]

The highest documented suicide jump was by expert skydiver Charles Bruce who committed suicide^[5] by leaping without a parachute from an airplane at an altitude of over 5,000 feet.^[6]

See also

• Autodefenestration, purposefully jumping out of a window.
• The Bridge, a documentary film about jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge.
• The Falling Man, an iconic photo of one of the hundreds of September 11 attack victims who fell or jumped from the burning World Trade Center.
• Lover's Leap, nickname for many scenic heights with the risk of a fatal fall and the possibility of a deliberate jump.
• Suicide barrier, access-control fence erected at certain high places to deter jumpers.
• Suicide bridge, particular bridges favored by jumpers.
• List of suicide sites, list, mostly of high places favored by jumpers.

References