Investigations of lethal violence in the United States have primarily focused on Whites and/or African Americans, generally ignoring American Indians. Interestingly, statistics indicate that homicide and suicide rates among American Indians are often higher than other racial/ethnic groups within the United States. In an attempt to understand these lethal violence patterns, the current study utilizes the integrated model of suicide and homicide to investigate the structural and cultural factors that contribute to the production and/or direction of American Indian lethal violence. Using data from the Indian Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Census Bureau, a modified lethal violence count (LVC) is used to examine the production of lethal violence among American Indians within U.S. counties as well as the suicide—homicide ratio (SHR) to unravel the etiological underpinnings of lethal violence. Findings indicate partial support for the integrated model with economic conditions and family disruption influencing these patterns of lethal violence.
Almgren, G., Guest, A., Immerwahr, G., & Spittel, M. ( 1998). Joblessness, family disruption, and violent death in Chicago, 1970-1990. Social Forces, 76, 1465-1493.
2.
Anderson, R.N. ( 2002). Deaths: Leading causes for 2000. National Vital Statistics Reports, 50(16), 1-85. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics .
3.
Bachman, R. ( 1992). Death and violence on the reservation: Homicide, family violence, and suicide in American Indian populations. New York: Auburn House.
4.
Barusch, A., & TenBarge, C. ( 2003). Indigenous elders in rural America. In Sandra S. Butler & Lenard W. Kaye (Eds.), Gerontological social work in small towns and rural communities. Binghamton, NY: Hawthorn Press.
5.
Batton, C. ( 1999). The stream analogy: A historical study of lethal violence rates from the perspective of the integrated homicide-suicide model. Unpublished doctoral, dissertation, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, TN.
6.
Batton, C. ( 2004). Gender difference in lethal violence: Historical trends in the relationship between homicide and suicide rates, 1960-2000. Justice Quarterly, 21, 423-461.
7.
Becker, T.M., Samet, J.M., Wiggins, C.L., & Key, C.R. ( 1990). Violent death in the West: Suicide and homicide in New Mexico, 1958-1987. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior , 20, 324-334.
8.
Braveheart, M.Y.H., & DeBruyn, L.M. ( 1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research , 8, 60-82.
9.
Bubar, R., & Thurman, P.J. ( 2004). Violence against native women. Social Justice, 31, 70-86.
10.
Burr, J.A., McCall, P.L., & Powell-Griner, E. (1997). Female labor force participation and suicide. Social Science and Medicine, 44, 1847-1859.
11.
CDC/NCHSNational Vital Statistics System. (2000). LCWK2. Deaths, percent of total deaths, and death rates for the 15 leading causes of death in 10-year age groups, by race and sex: United States 2000. Retrieved October 16, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/statab/unpubd/mortabs/lcwk2_10.htm
12.
Corzine, J., Huff-Corzine, L., & Whitt, H.P. ( 1999). Cultural and subcultural theories of homicide . In M. Dwayne Smith and Margaret A. Zahn (Eds.), Homicide: A sourcebook of social research (pp. 42-57). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
13.
Duran, E., & Duran, B. ( 1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. New York: State University of New York Press.
14.
Fisher, J.C., & Mason, R.L. ( 1981). The analysis of multicollinear data in criminology . In James Allan Fox (Ed.), Methods in quantitative criminology (pp. 99-125). New York: Academic Press.
15.
Freedenthal, S.L., & Stiffman, A.R. (2004). Suicidal behavior in urban American Indian adolescents: A comparison with reservation youth in a southwestern state. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior , 34, 160-171.
16.
French, L. ( 2003). Native American justice. Chicago : Burnham.
17.
French, L., & Hornbuckle, J. (1977). An analysis of Indian violence: The Cherokee example. American Indian Quarterly , 3, 335-356.
18.
He, N., Cao, L., Wells, W., & Maguire, E.R. ( 2003). Forces of production and direction: A test of an expanded model of suicide and homicide. Homicide Studies , 7, 36-57.
19.
Henry, A., & Short, J.F. ( 1954). Suicide and homicide: Some economic, sociological, and psychological aspects of aggression. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
20.
Huff-Corzine, L., Corzine, J., & Moore, D.C. ( 1991). Deadly connections: Culture, poverty, and the direction of lethal violence. Social Forces, 69, 715-732.
21.
Humphrey, J.A., &Kupferer, H. ( 1982). Homicide and suicie among the Cherokee and Lumbee Indians of North Carolina. International Journal of Psychiatry , 28, 121-128.
22.
Lanier, C., & Huff-Corzine, L. (2006). American Indian homicide: A county-level analysis utilizing social disorganization theory. Homicide Studies, 10, 181-194.
23.
Lee, M.R., Maume, M.O., & Ousey, G.C. ( 2003). Social isolation and lethal violence across the metro/nonmetro divide: The effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and poverty concentration on homicide. Rural Sociology, 68, 107-131.
24.
Lee, M.R., & Stevenson, G.D. (2006). Gender specific homicide offending in rural areas. Homicide Studies, 10, 55-73.
25.
Lester, D. ( 1994). Native American suicide and homicide rates: Are they associated with White suicide and homicide rates? Psychological Reports, 74, 702.
26.
Lester, D. ( 1995). Social correlates of American Indian suicide and homicide rates. American Indian and Alaska Indian Mental Health Research , 6, 46-55.
27.
Lester, D. ( 1996). American Indian suicide and homicide rates and unemployment . Perceptual and Motor Skills, 83, 1170.
28.
Lester, D. ( 1997). Suicide in American Indians. New York : Nova Science.
29.
Levy, J.E., & Kunitz, S.J. ( 1971). Indian reservations, anomie, and social pathologies . Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 27, 97-128.
30.
May, P.A., Van Winkle, N.W., Williams, M.B., McFeeley, P., DeBruyn, L.M., & Serna, P. ( 2002). Alcohol and suicide death among American Indians of New Mexico: 1980-1998. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior , 32, 240-255.
31.
McEachern, D., Van Winkle, M., & Steiner, S. ( 1998). Domestic violence among the Navajo: A legacy of colonization . Journal of Poverty, 2, 31-46.
32.
Messner, S.F., Anselin, L., Baller, R.D., Hawkins, D.F., Deane, G., & Tolnay, S.E. ( 1999). The spatial patterning of county homicide rates: An application of exploratory spatial data analysis. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 15, 423-450.
33.
Messner, S.F., & Sampson, R.J. ( 1991). The sex ratio, family disruption, and rates of violent crime: The paradox of demographic structure. Social Forces , 69, 693-713.
Neapolitan, J.L. ( 2005). An evaluation of the quality and use of race-specific homicide data. Homicide Studies, 9, 324-349.
36.
Nisbett, R.E., & Cohen, D. ( 1996). Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the South . Boulder, CO: Westview .
37.
Olson, L.M., & Wahab, S. ( 2006). American Indians and suicide: A neglected area of research . Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 7, 19-33.
38.
Osgood, D.W. ( 2000). Poisson-based regression analysis of aggregate crime rates. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 16, 21-43.
39.
Osgood, D.W., & Chambers, J.M. (2000). Social disorganization outside the metropolis: An analysis of rural youth violence. Criminology, 38, 81-115.
40.
Ousey, G.C. ( 1999). Homicide, structural factors, and the racial invariance assumption. Criminology, 37, 405-426.
41.
Parker, K.F., & Johns, T. ( 2002). Urban disadvantage and types of race-specific homicide: Assessing the diversity in family structures in the urban context . Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39, 277-303.
42.
Pescosolido, B.A., & Mendelsohn, R. (1986). Social causation or social construction of suicide? An investigation into the social organization of official rates. American Sociological Review, 51, 80-100.
43.
Poupart, L.M. ( 2002). Crime and justice in American Indian communities . Social Justice, 29, 144-159.
44.
Poupart, L.M. ( 2003). The familiar face of genocide: Internalized oppression amongAmerican Indians. Hypatia, 18, 86-100.
45.
Riedel, M. ( 1999). Sources of homicide data: A review and comparison . In M. Dwayne Smith & Margaret A. Zahn (Eds.), Homicide: A sourcebook of social research (pp. 75-95). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
46.
Shihadeh, E.S., & Flynn, N. ( 1996). Segregation and crime: The effect of Black social isolation on the rates of Black urban violence. Social Forces , 74, 1325-1352.
47.
Shihadeh, E.S., & Steffensmeier, D.J. (1994). Economic inequality, family disruption, and urban Black violence: Cities as units of stratification and social control. Social Forces, 73, 729-751.
48.
Shore, J.H. ( 1975). American Indian suicide: Fact and fantasy. Psychiatry, 38, 86-91.
49.
Unnithan, P., Huff-Corzine, L., Corzine, J., & Whitt, H.P. ( 1994). The currents of lethal violence: An integrated model of suicide and homicide. Albany: State University of New York Press.
50.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2000a). Census 2000, Summary File 1 (SF 1) [Generated by Christina Lanier using American Factfinder]. Available from http://factfinder.census.gov/
51.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2000b). Census 2000, Summary File 3 (SF 3) [Generated by Christina Lanier using American Factfinder]. Available from http://factfinder.census.gov/
52.
Van Winkle, N.W., & May, P.A. ( 1986). Native American suicide in New Mexico, 1957-1979: A comparative study. Human Organization, 45, 296-309.
53.
Van Winkle, N.W., & May, P.A. ( 1993). An update on American Indian suicide in New Mexico, 1980-1987 . Human Organization, 52, 304-315.
54.
Whitbeck, L.B., Adams, G.W., Hoyt, D.R., & Chen, X. ( 2004). Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people. American Journal of Community Psychology , 33, 119-130.
55.
Whitt, H.P., Gordon, C., & Hofley, J. ( 1972). Religion, economic development and lethal aggression . American Sociological Review, 37, 193-201.
56.
Wiersema, B., Loftin, C., & McDowall, D. ( 2000). A comparison of supplementary homicide reports and national vital statistics homicide estimates for U.S. counties. Homicide Studies, 4, 317-340.
57.
Wissow, L., Walkup, J., Barlow, A., Reid, R., & Kane, S. ( 2001). Cluster and regional influences on suicide in a Southwestern American Indian tribe. Social Science and Medicine , 53, 1115-1124.
58.
Woo, D. ( 2004). Cultural "anomalies" and cultural defenses: Towards an integrated theory of homicide and suicide. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 32, 279-302.
59.
Wu, B. ( 2003). Testing the stream analogy for lethal violence: A macro study of suicide and homicide. Western Criminology Review , 4, 215-225.
60.
Wu, B. ( 2004). Testing three competing hypotheses for explaining lethal violence. Violence and Victims, 19, 399-411.
61.
Young, T.J. ( 1990). Poverty, suicide, and homicide among Native Americans . Psychological Reports, 67, 1153-1154.
62.
Young, T.J. ( 1992). Household size, suicide, and homicide amongAmerican Indians. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 16, 125-127.
