NCJ Number
192567
Date Published
1994
Length
247 pages
Annotation
Building on past work, this book outlines an integrated model for linking suicide and homicide and shows how research from this perspective can further the understanding of violence.
Abstract
Following in the footsteps of the European moral statisticians, Austin Porterfield's empirical investigations of the spatial juxtaposition of homicide and suicide rates in the late 1940's paved the way for the development of a model that emphasizes linkages between the two forms of lethal violence. In 1954 Andrew F. Henry and James F. Short, Jr., constructed a theoretical explanation of the relationship between homicide and suicide on the foundation provided by Freud and the frustration-aggression hypothesis developed by John Dollard and his associates in 1939. The basic argument of this book is that although there are dissimilarities between homicide and suicide, there is much to be gained from revitalizing the theory developed by Henry and Short. Specifically, there are numerous issues related to lethal violence that can be better addressed by working from an integrated model that emphasizes the similarities between self-directed and other-directed lethal violence. These include the peculiar nature of Southern violence in the United States; continued differences in the patterns of lethal violence between Blacks and whites; and the relationships between homicide, suicide, and economic development in a cross-national context. Although not advocating a cessation of research that views homicide and suicide as distinct behaviors, the authors contend that for many research issues related to human violence, the goal of explanation will be better served by a theoretical model that explicitly takes into account the connections between homicide and suicide. Chapter notes, 465 references, and a subject index