NCJ Number
192574
Date Published
1994
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This chapter offers a new understanding of Southern violence in the United States, one that focuses on regional differences in the suicide-homicide ratio (SHR) instead of high homicide rates.
Abstract
In the cross-national context, the United States stands out as having the highest homicide rate but a below-average suicide rate among the industrialized nations. It has long been recognized, however, that killing is not distributed randomly within the United States, and H.V. Redfield's early report (1880) that homicide rates were highest in the Southern States has proven to be one of the most stable findings in the field of American criminology. The current study enhances comparability with past studies of Southern violence by analyzing the 48 contiguous States. Dependent variables for the analyses were computed from suicide and homicide totals for Blacks and whites reported by the National Center for Health Statistics (1974). Because there is random fluctuation in the annual levels of both types of lethal violence, a 3-year average was calculated for the years 1969 to 1971. The findings support Hackney's 1969 contention that it is the juxtaposition of high homicide and low suicide rates (low SHR) that defines the South's peculiar pattern of violence for both races. As measured by percent born in the South, "Southernness" had no effect on the lethal violence rate for either Blacks or whites. A Southern regional influence, however, channeled violence toward other persons rather than the self for both races. Proponents of structural explanations for Southern homicide have been correct in asserting that severe poverty is a determinant of lethal violence. They have erred, however, in assuming that other regional differences are unimportant influences on violence once economic and demographic characteristics have been controlled. 5 tables