Citation

Piatkowska SJ. Sociol. Q. 2020; 61(4): 787-812.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Midwest Sociological Society, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00380253.2020.1715308

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study draws on the theories of Emile Durkheim and the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence to examine the effect of poverty on suicide rates across 15 Western European nations and the United States between 1993 and 2000. To achieve our goal, we take advantage of absolute and relative poverty measures, along with infant mortality rates, utilized in recent cross-national research on homicide rates. The results from fixed-effects regression models reveal that relative poverty rather than absolute poverty and infant mortality rates are positively related to suicide rates, net of economic development. In addition, we find relative poverty and infant mortality rates to yield significant effects on the suicide-homicide ratio and total violence rates. This study concludes with a discussion of the role of relative poverty in predicting different manifestations of lethal violence. © 2020 Midwest Sociological Society.

Language: en

Keywords

Crime; poverty; Durkheim; inequality; deviance; the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence