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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this report by Greenberg et al. was to examine patterns and causes of violent death across the United States in the twentieth century.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors of this report conducted a secondary analysis of annual statistical data, complied by the National Center for Health Statistics, over a forty year period. These data on death rates were based upon annual reporting by each state of every death certificate. Included in the Center's statistics were data about external causes of injury and death, which were usually violent. Violent death was divided into five groups: homicide; suicide; motor vehicle accidents; other accidents; and death due to undetermined causes. This last category, comprising only 3% of all violent deaths, was excluded from the study due to its small size. Data were gathered about violent death among young whites in the 48 contiguous states for five different time periods: 1939-1941, 1949-1951, 1959-1961, 1969-1971 and 1977-1979, the most recent period for which statistics had been compiled.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
For youth aged 15 to 24 years, most of the deaths in the external causes category were violent. Death rates in the Western states were consistently the highest, with those in the Northeast being the lowest. Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming all had death rates far above the national average for all causes of violent and nonviolent death in all years. On the other hand, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island all had death rates far below the national average. For males in the western states, death rates had been as much as 59% higher than the national average, and as much as 56% higher for females. In the Northeast, rates for males were 32% lower than the national average at times, and 24% lower for females. There was found to be no difference in nonviolent death rates between the two regions, thus suggesting that all the difference between the groups was accounted for solely by death involving violence. The higher rate of violent death in the West goes against conventional theory that suggests that violence such as suicide primarily occurs in the urban ghetto. In fact, suicide was found to be much more likely to occur in the West, with rates twice as high for males and three times as high for females than in the Northeastern part of the country. Looking at county differences in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, the authors found that the most dangerous counties were in rural areas - these rates were even higher than those for inner-city blacks, who are traditionally thought of as the most at-risk population. These findings, however, suggested that young white males in rural areas in the West were most likely to suffer violent death. The authors suggested some possible environmental explanations for their findings. Drawing upon Durkheim's work on suicide, the authors found that the Western states had higher divorce rates, lower religiosity, more mobility and more unemployment, all indicators of a more unstable and unintegrated life in the West compared to the Northeast. The authors also examined ethnic explanations for the significant differences between the two regions. In the West, 15% of the population was Mexican American, compared to less than 1% in the Northeast. The researchers also examined public initiatives, and found that the Western region did not control handguns as much as in the Northeast, its population drove over the speed limit more often, states had few cancer protection programs and only weak environmental programs, did not have laws requiring the use of seat belts and had not increased the drinking age. These examples cannot directly be linked to violence, but they can suggest that there was less institutional and private concern for the population's health and general safety in the West than there was in the Northeast.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors recommended that all types of violent death be studied together, as many of them were considered to be related. The authors stressed the importance of social and cultural factors in violent death among the young, and the need to examine causes of violent death outside of the metropolitan areas, and inside the small, rural parts of the Western region. The authors suggested that the rural white ethos of the American West - the individualism and risk-taking behavior that has been the symbol of the area - might contribute to the problem and should be taken into account. Practical implications of their findings include a realization on the part of public health and social work professionals that there is a severe limitation on these professionals' ability to control the mortality found in the West. The authors concluded that the challenge to American society is to create a less threatening and more supportive environment for youth, with less social isolation, despair and depression.
EVALUATION:
The authors present a thoughtful and clear discussion of the problem of violent death among youth, with an interesting examination of the differences across the country throughout much of the twentieth century. They also provide a thorough discussion of the possible environmental and social factors that might lead to such high rates of violent death, as well as an insightful examination of the implications of their findings for policy and prevention planning. The paper is well written, concise and easy to follow, and could provide a basis for further research into the field of youth violence. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - 1930s
KW - 1940s
KW - 1950s
KW - 1960s
KW - 1970s
KW - Death Causes
KW - Death Rates
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Homicide Rates
KW - Homicide Trends and Patterns
KW - Injury Rates
KW - Suicide Rates
KW - Suicide Trends and Patterns
KW - Accidental Death
KW - Accidental Homicide
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Young Adult
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Adult Victim
KW - Caucasian Violence
KW - Caucasian Victim
KW - Victim Characteristics
Language: en |