NCJ Number
213837
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 84 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 1539-1557
Date Published
March 2006
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the changing age distributions of homicide and suicide in the United States from 1930 to 2000.
Abstract
Overall, the results indicated that the changes in the age distributions of suicide and homicide rates throughout much of the study period were strongly related. The authors contend that this association between suicide and homicide rates is because both forms of violence depend on the degree of social integration and regulation within a cohort. Two characteristics of cohorts--the relative size of the cohort and non-marital births--were negatively related to their degree of social integration and regulation and were positively related to rates of suicide and homicide. The findings have implications for homicide and suicide prevention programming, which is generally quite divergent. These results suggest that both types of programming should share a focus on promoting greater social integration and regulation. Theoretical implications are discussed, as are the policy implications suggested by the findings, particularly the results indicating that the level of lethal violence varies significantly by race and sex. Specific policy suggestions include strategies to support families, mothers, and children such as subsidized childcare and longer maternity leaves. Data were drawn from the Annual Vital Health Statistics Reports and an Age Period Cohort Characteristic model was used to analyze the data, which were grouped into 5-year intervals. Figures, tables, references