Associate Professor Rutgers University Cinnaminson, New Jersey, United States
Body of Abstract: Research
Aims: Few ecological studies have examined the relationship between interpersonal violence (e.g., homicide) and self-directed violence (suicide). The purpose of this study is to analyze the causal relationship between local homicide and suicide in US counties over time.
Methods: Using a series of dynamic panel models with a system GMM estimation, we adopt a quasi-experimental approach to analyze the causal relationship between rates of homicide and suicide in all US counties from 1968 through 2019. Data are derived from the Centers for Disease Control and the US Census Bureau. We assess whether the relationship differs by firearm involvement, race, and county urbanicity.
Results: Higher rates of homicide are associated with an increase in suicide rates. This finding is consistent regardless of firearm involvement, although the magnitude of the association is slightly larger for firearm suicides. Race and urbanicity both modify the relationship between homicide and suicide, although the findings remain consistently significant across sub-analyses.
Conclusions: Greater exposure to interpersonal violence such as homicide may increase community risk for heightened rates of suicide. As such, community violence prevention may serve to help reduce suicide as well. Future work should aim to disentangle the mechanisms that drive this relationship.
Learning Objectives:
Audience members should be able to describe the longitudinal relationship between homicide and suicide at the county level.
Those in the audience should have the capacity to discuss potential policy solutions for reducing suicide based on community violence prevention efforts.
Those in attendance should identify potential mechanisms that drive the homicide-suicide relationship described in the research.
