Relationship Among Victimization Rates for Accidents, Suicide and Homicide

• NCJ Number: 84368
• Author(s): W Wilbanks
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 32 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the First World Congress of Victimology sponsored by Victimology - An International Journal, Washington, D.C., August 20-24, 1980

Annotation

This study analyzes relationships among victimization rates for external causes of death -- homicide, suicide, and accidents -- using 1975 cross sectional data from 136 U.S. Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA) and 45 countries and longitudinal data from the United States and Dade County, Fla.

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that victims of accidents, homicides, and suicides share common personality characteristics, but few researchers have focused on this relationship. Analysis of SMSA data revealed a strong tendency for areas with high suicide rates to have high accident rates. Jurisdictions with more manufacturing and more lower class persons had higher accident rates. Motor vehicle accidents were strongly tied with median income and percent population below poverty line, reflecting patterns similar to those for homicide. Additional analyses including social, economic, and population variables also indicated a strong correlation between homicides and other violent deaths. However, positive correlations found in the SMSA's were not repeated when rates were examined across foreign countries. Longitudinal data for the United States from 1960 to 1975 demonstrated a strong negative correlation between the homicide rate and the accident rate, but a positive relationship between homicide and suicide rates. This presents a sharp contrast to the uniformly positive correlations found among the cross sectional SMSA data. Information on death rates from Dade County, Fla. for the period 1956-79 revealed that correlations found over time in the United States do not necessarily hold for a single jurisdiction, although the relationships between suicide and homicide rates was again strong. Homicide, suicide, motor vehicle accident, and other accident rates are presented for the United States, Japan, Sweden, and Canada from 1964 to 1977 to demonstrate that trends in each country do not follow the same patterns. Tables and six references are included.