Regional variation in suicide and homicide

Violence in American cities was examined by classifying each city as high versus low in its homicide rate and high versus low in its suicide rate. Four groups of cities were identified on the basis of this classification, and their characteristics were explored. Differences were found in crime rates, poverty, population density, racial composition, latitude, and longitude. The implications of the results were examined.     

The Stigma Associated with Various Criminal Offenses in Hiring Decisions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of prospective employers toward hiring ex-offenders based on the nature of the crime committed. Thirty-nine male and 30 female students in a personnel management class at a major Midwestern university were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward hiring persons convicted for the following crimes: kidnapping, armed robbery, homicide, assault and battery (nonsexual), automobile theft, rape, burglary, sale of hard narcotics, forgery, and child molesting. Statistical analyses revealed a significant difference in the total group's rankings of the 10 crimes but no significant differences between males and females.     

Temperature and aggression: effects on quarterly, yearly, and city rates of violent and nonviolent crime

The hypothesized relation between uncomfortably hot temperatures and aggressive behavior was examined in two studies of violent and nonviolent crime. Data on rates of murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft were gathered from archival sources. The first three crimes listed are violent; the latter four are less violent (labeled nonviolent). On the basis of previous research and theory (Anderson & Anderson, 1984), it was predicted that violent crimes would be more prevalent in the hotter quarters of the year and in hotter years. Furthermore, it was predicted that this temperature-crime relation would be stronger for violent than for nonviolent crime. Study 1 confirmed both predictions. Also, differences among cities in violent crime were predicted to be related to the hotness of cities; this effect was expected to be stronger for violent than for nonviolent crimes. Study 2 confirmed both predictions, even when effects of a variety of social, demographic, and economic variables were statistically removed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Firearm possession and violent death: A critical review

This article critically reviews the empirical research on the association of firearm possession with suicide and homicide. Both suicide and homicide reflect intentional behavior with the goal of killing oneself or another person. Firearms provide merely a means of reaching this goal. The possession of a firearm can, therefore, not be a primary cause of either suicide or homicide. However, since a defining characteristic of both suicide and homicide is the success of killing, and since guns are more effective means for reaching this goal than poison or other weapons, the rate of firearm possession can be expected to be positively related to overall rates of suicide and homicide. This prediction has been tested with individual-level as well as macro-level studies. Individual-level studies, which typically use case–control designs, allow a better control than macro-level studies of the cultural, demographic, and economic determinants of suicide and homicide. In macro-level studies, the potential impact of gun possession on overall rates is likely to be confounded by the factors that motivate people to commit suicide or homicide. Despite these methodological limitations, the research reviewed in this article supports the assumption that easy access to firearms increases the risk of dying from violent causes. With very few exception, studies found gun ownership positively related to gun-related suicides and homicides. Furthermore, there is evidence that guns do not merely serve as substitutes for other means of killing, but increase the overall rates of suicide and homicide.     

The Associations Between Infant Homicide,Homicide, and Suicide Rates: An Analysis of World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control Statistics

Previous studies have found that rates of homicide of children aged under one (infant homicide) are associated with rates of suicide, but not with rates of homicide. Linear regression was used to examine associations among infant homicide, homicide, and suicide in samples of regions in the United States and other countries. Infant homicide rates were significantly and independently associated in all analyses with both total homicide and total suicide rates. The epidemiological evidence supports the clinical observation that infant homicides are due to a range of causes, including maternal mental illness, but are also related to the level of serious violence within a community.     

Temperature,City Size,and the Southern Subculture of Violence: Support for Social Escape/Avoidance (SEA) Theory1

A review of timc-period research on temperature and aggression led the authors to hypothesize that southern subculture and sociodemographic variables are responsible for geographical differences in I1.S. homicide rates. It was also hypothesized that temperature's correlation with nonhomicidal violencc would be stronger in small than large cities. These hypotheses were tested by obtaining cross-sectional data on I0 temperature indexes, 11 sociodemographic controls, percentage southern horn, and crime rates in more than 300 U.S. cities in 1990. Partial correlation analyses indicated that percentage southern born and sociodernographic variables rather than temperature predicted homicide rates. Moderator variable regression analyses indicated that relationships between temperature and nonhomicidal violence were stronger in small than large cities. The results are interpreted in terms of a social escapeiavoidance model of criminal behavior, which predicts that low as well as high temperatures lead co-offenders to avoid social contact.     

California's Suicide Decline, 1970–1990

From 1970 to 1990 California experienced a 32% decline in suicide, which was particularly pronounced among women, non-whites, the young, and urban dwellers. Suicide declines of over 50% were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and large decreases occurred in other coastal counties. Additionally, California was the only one of 51 states to show a consistent decline in teenage and young-adult suicide (accompanied by an 88% decrease in teenage drug and other poisoning deaths). Initial investigation of death certification, accident and homicide trends, economic measures, and prevention efforts did not produce an explanation for a suicide decrease of California's magnitude. However, the state does display anomalous trends in certain social measures (reduced divorce, rising non-White population, and rising homicide) that point to multifactorial hypotheses including demographic changes and changed attitudes toward violence. Review of the accuracy of past suicide certification procedures nationally is also indicated.     

An Application of Durkheim’s Four Categories of Suicide to Organizational Crimes

This article applies theoretical developments in the phenomena of suicide to shed light on the phenomena of crime. We draw on Durkheim’s theoretical insights on suicide to develop four categories of organizational crimes. We review the concepts of social integration and moral regulation at the societal level and establish their equivalents at the organizational level: socialization and accountability. We argue that socialization programs and accountability systems in organizations influence the nature of the crime rather than prevent it entirely. We highlight four categories of white-collar crimes that occurred in organizations characterized by different socialization programs and accountability systems.     

Homicide and property crime: The relationships to anomie

Sociological explanations of crime have given considerable attention to Merton's anomie theory without systematically testing it. This paper tests Merton's theory through operationalizing anomie in terms of the degree of inequality in the distribution of income in each of the 50 states. A multiple regression analysis determines that while income inequality is significantly related to the rate of homicide, it is not significantly related to the rate of property crime. A preliminary cross-national analysis of 20 nations replicates this same general finding. The results suggest that a relatively large gap between material success and the means to success is likely to result in crimes of violence rather than property crime once we control the influence of other variables.     

Topografie der Jugenddelinquenz

The article shows that the registered juvenile delinquency has decreased in recent years. Serious violent crime partially exists, but this is only a small part of the overall juvenile delinquency. Forms of appearance of these violent crimes are outlined. With the help of a dark field study it is illustrated that there is a great variety of delinquency among young people. There are young people showing mostly law-abiding behavior, infrequent offenders and a group with a significant burden of crimes.     

The Epidemiology of Homicide followed by Suicide: A Systematic and Quantitative Review

This systematic review of population based studies of homicide followed by suicide was conducted to examine the associations between rates of homicide‐suicide, rates of other homicides and rates of suicide. The review analysed 64 samples, including the case of an outlier (Greenland) that were reported in 49 studies. There was a significant association between the rates of homicide‐suicide and those of other homicides in studies from the U.S.A. Outside the U.S.A. there was no clear association between homicide‐suicide and other homicide but there was modest but significant association between rates of suicide and homicide‐suicide. Homicide‐suicide appears to be closer in epidemiological terms to homicide than suicide in regions with high rates of homicide and measures to reduce homicide in these regions may also reduce homicide‐suicide.     

Mass Murder: An Analysis of Extreme Violence

Mass murder involves the slaughter of four or more victims by one or a few assailants within a single event, lasting but a few minutes or as long as several hours. More than just arbitrary, using this minimum body count—as opposed to a two- or three-victim threshold suggested by others (e.g., Ressler et al., 1988, Holmes and Holmes, 2001)—helps to distinguish multiple killing from homicide generally. Moreover, by restricting our attention to acts committed by one or a few offenders, our working definition of multiple homicide also excludes highly organized or institutionalized killings (e.g., war crimes and large-scale acts of political terrorism as well as certain acts of highly organized crime rings). Although state-sponsored killings are important in their own right, they may be better explained through the theories and methods of political science than criminology. Thus, for example, the definition of multiple homicide would include the crimes committed by Charles Manson and his followers, but not those of Hitler's Third Reich, or the 9/11 terrorists, despite some similarities in the operations of authority.     

Affective disgust predicts blame for gay male homicide victims

For certain crimes there is a tendency in the United States to blame individuals for their victimization. Previous work has shown that affective states can impact blame attribution. Drawing upon this work, the purpose of the current pre-registered research was to examine the relation between affective disgust and victim blame attribution. In Study 1, as participants’ (N = 203) level of implicit disgust associations with gay men increased, their tendency to blame a gay male homicide victim also increased, whereas their agreement that the homicide qualified as a hate crime decreased. In Study 2, disgust was experimentally induced by exposing participants (N = 431) to disgusting (e.g., vomit, insects) or neutral images (e.g., mug, stapler). Inducing disgust increased victim blame and decreased perceptions that the homicide constituted a hate crime. However, exploratory mediation analyses in both studies showed that the impact of disgust on hate crime applications is best explained as an indirect effect of victim blame. Taken together, these findings suggest that both individual differences in implicit gay-disgust and situational feelings of disgust may underlie people’s perceptions of how blameworthy a victim is for the crime committed against them.     

Homicide Followed by Suicide: A Comparison with Homicide and Suicide

Homicide‐suicides are a rare yet very serious form of lethal violence which mainly occurs in partnerships and families. The extent to which homicide‐suicide can be understood as being primarily a homicide or a suicide event, or rather a category of its own is examined. In total, 103 homicide‐suicides were compared to 3,203 homicides and 17,751 suicides. These are all events that took place in the Netherlands in the period 1992 to 2006. Logistic regression analyses show that homicide‐suicides significantly differ from both homicides and suicides with regard to sociodemographic and event characteristics. The findings suggest that homicide‐suicide might be considered as a distinct phenomenon from both homicide and suicide.     

Gun availability and use of guns for suicide, homicide, and murder in Canada

A reliability check of Lester's (2000b) 1970-1995 time series that examined associations between the availability of firearms and their use for homicide and suicide in Canada. For the period 1974 to 1999, the relative availability of firearms as measured by the rate of accidental death from firearms and the average of the percentages of suicides + homicides using firearms was positively associated with the rate of homicide by firearms but not negatively associated with the rate of homicide by all other methods, and positively associated with the rate of suicide by firearms and negatively associated with the rate of suicide by all other methods. Correlations for the homicide versus murder rates, homicide rate using guns versus murder rate using guns, and homicide rate by all other methods versus murder rate by all other methods were very similar. There was a decrease over time of total suicide and homicide rates and firearm suicide and homicide rates, and with a slight indication of substitution of other methods for suicide.     

Threat and Television Viewing in the United States, 1960-1990

We examined people's television viewing choices to determine whether, during times of societal threat, people watch light programming to escape from self, or meaningful programming to explore their fears. Consistent with previous research (Doty, Peterson, & Winter, 1991; Sales, 1973), societal threat was defined as increases in unemployment, consumer price index, prime interest rate, bombings, crime, work stoppages, suicide, homicide, and divorce. The 20 highest rated television programs for each year from 1960 to 1990 were rated in terms of meaningfulness of content, realism of characters, and complexity of plot and compared to the indicators of societal threat. Results indicate that during times of societal threat people choose meaningful television programming that confronts serious issues.     

Suicide and Homicide Rates in Canada and the United States

Suicide and homicide rates by age were analyzed for Canada and the United States, indicating that suicide is higher in Canada and that homicide is higher in the United States. Results indicated a positive association between homicide and suicide rates in the United States but these two rates of death were not significantly associated in Canada. Holinger (1987) had associated the relative size of the cohort to the rates of suicide and homicide in young people in the United States. The more current data in both countries did not support Holinger's results. Using the measure devised by Easterlin (1980) and Ahlburg and Schapiro (1984) –that is, the proportion of youths aged 15–24 relative to adults aged 25–64–the correlation between the size of the youth cohort and the suicide rate of youths aged 15–24 was negative. It is concluded that the two patterns in these two countries may be explained from a historical perspective.     

Psychiatric chrono‐epidemiology: its relevance for the study of aggression

Chrono‐epidemiology is the study of the distribution of health events according to time. The time intervals taken into account have cyclic patterns and include circadian, weekly, seasonal, and circannual rhythms. In the behavioural field, chrono‐epidemiology can be and has been applied to studies concerning the causes of death (suicide and homicide), clinical events such as admissions to and contacts with mental healthcare services, and the seasonal distribution of crime involving the use of violence. Frequently reported findings include clear circadian and seasonal rhythms present in the phenomenon of suicide (rhythms more evident in the case of violent suicide); seasonal rhythms in the expression of aggression by patients hospitalised for mental illness; and a circannual recurrence of crimes with a violent component. The intrinsic circadian and seasonal rhythms of some neuronal systems, particularly those of serotonin, involved in the control of mood and impulses, are thought to favour the behavioural rhythms observed, although the contribution of socio‐environmental factors, such as the fluctuation of supportive networks according to time, is also acknowledged. By demonstrating non‐casual recurrence of certain behaviour and by exploring the socio‐biological basis of the rhythms beneath these recurrences, chrono‐epidemiology may offer important etiologic and preventive clues to the understanding of the biological and environmental correlates of aggressive behaviour. Aggr. Behav. 28:477–490, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Dyadic death: murder-suicide.

Twenty homicide-suicides, drawn from death records of three major eastern United States cities, were analyzed in comparison to prior studies and samples of homicide offenders and suicide victims. Results indicated a lower incidence for this event than reported previously and several distinguishing characteristics of the murderer who subsequently commits suicide. Two primary types, from the perspective of ego fusion, are discussed.