Abstract
Within the sociological literature rates of lethal violence have theoretically andempirically been associated with urban location. In many advanced industrial countries rising rates of rural suicide have resulted in an unprecedented reversal of the rural-urban suicide differential. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining the implications of rural-urban location within contemporary Durkheimian macro social suicide research. Combining county level mortality, demographic, economic, and religious data thisstudy empirically: a) details longitudinal patterns of rural and urban county age-adjusted suicide rates for the Southern Gulf States from 1970-2000; b) standardizes and regresses crude white male suicide rates for rural and urban counties(separately) against a set ofpredictor variables commonly applied within macro-social suicide research. Findings from this study indicate several unique and significant patterns of association in rural and urban counties, suggesting the need to reconsider the theoretical and empirical implications of rural-urban space within contemporary macro-social suicide research.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Russell. 2008. "Integration-Regulation and Lethal Violence: A Sociological Examination of the Rural-Urban Suicide Differential in the U.S. Gulf South 1970-2000." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 23(2): Article 10. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol23/iss2/10
Publication Date
12-31-2008
