NCJ Number
136234
Journal
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Volume: 23 Dated: (1988) Pages: 202-205
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Data from the National Center for Vital Statistics were used to analyze the factors related to suicide and homicide in each of the continental States of the United States.
Abstract
The analysis considered all the socioeconomic variables used in previous research. Results revealed that suicide rates and homicide rates had very different correlates. Suicide rates varied most strongly with social instability, while homicide rates varied most strongly with a southern subculture. Thus, suicide rates were higher in the west and were most strongly associated with the amount of interstate migration and the percent divorced. In contrast, States with high homicide rates were those in the south, and the most influential variables were the percentage of married women working part-time and the north-south latitude. Results give little support for the hypothesis that suicide and homicide are opposed behaviors that parallel with opposite correlations with critical socioeconomic variables, as has been suggested. A more useful way to view the correlations between personal violence and socioeconomic variables is to see the States as having different cultural patterns that vary from east to west and from north to south. Tables and 13 references (Author summary modified)