Death Studies, 29: 413422, 2005

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Inc.

ISSN: 0748-1187 print/1091-7683 online
DOI: 10.1080/07481180590932526

AN APPLICATION OF DURKHEIMS THEORY OF

SUICIDE TO PRISON SUICIDE RATES IN THE
UNITED STATES

CHRISTINE TARTARO and DAVID LESTER

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, New Jersey, USA

E. Durkheim (1897) suggested that the societal rate of suicide might be explained
by societal factors, such as marriage, divorce, and birth rates. The current study
examined male prison suicide rates and suicide rates for men in the total popu-
lation in the United States and found that variables based on Durkheims theory
of suicide explained prison suicide rates better than suicide rates for total popu-
lation. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

Durkheim (1897), in his classic work on suicide, proposed that

social characteristics are determinants of a societys suicide rate.
Specifically, the degree of social integration (the extent to which
members of society are bound together in social networks) and
the degree of social regulation (the extent to which the behavior,
desires, and emotions of the members of the society are regulated
by the society) were viewed by Durkheim as important causes of
suicide. Additionally, economic changes, whether good or bad,
were perceived by Durkheim as predictors of suicide rates in
industrialized societies.
Durkheims discussion of social networks was primarily
centered around marriage, divorce, and children. Marriage and
children were described as resulting in two types of associations:
the conjugal and the family groups. Both were viewed by Dur-
kheim as small groups into which the participants are integrated.
The integration that comes with being a member of a family was
believed by Durkheim to have an inverse effect on suicide rates.
Divorce, or conjugal anomie, is believed to change the moral

Received 4 October 2004; accpeted 19 December 2004.

Address correspondence to Christine Tartaro or David Lester, The Richard Stockton
College of New Jersey, Jim Leeds Road, PO Box 195, Pomona, NJ 08240-0195. E-mail:
christine.tartaro@stockton.edu or lesterd@stockton.edu

413
414 C. Tartaro and D. Lester

and material regimen of married couples. The detachment felt at

the end of the marital relationship, along with the lifestyle changes
that typically come with a divorce, are expected to be associated
with an increased rate of suicide. Lifestyle changes are also brought
about by sudden changes in the economic status of residents in a
given society. Durkheim referred to these changes as disturbances
of equilibrium, because modifications of financial status typically
requires a reevaluation of values and goals.
Durkheim was referring to the free society, rather than prison
society, when he discussed the possible relationship between social
integration and suicide rates. Researchers studying suicide inside
correctional facilities generally choose to focus on conditions
within the facilities, such as supervision practices (Hayes, 1996;
Lloyd, 1992; Manning, 1989; Toch, 1992; Welch & Gunther,
1997; Wooldredge & Winfree, 1990), the physical design of the
cellblocks and institutions (Atlas, 1987; Lloyd, 1990; Rowan,
1989; Zupan, 1991), and inmate characteristics (Hayes, 1989;
Liebling, 1992; Loucks, 1997). Prisoners, however, are also mem-
bers of the larger society, and it may be that the suicide rate in insti-
tutions is affected by the same social forces as on the outside. Sykes
(1972), in his study of the prison society, stated that

The prison is not an autonomous system of power; rather, it is an instru-

ment of the State, shaped by its social environment, and we must keep this
simple truth in mind if we are to understand the prison. It reacts to and is
acted upon by the free community as various groups struggle to advance
their interests. . .. The prison as a social system does not exist in isolation
any more than the criminal within the prison exists in isolation as an indi-
vidual; and the institution and its setting are inextricably mixed despite the
definite boundary of the wall. (pp. 89)

Lester (1994b, 1999) conducted studies on the relationship

between prison suicide rates and several social indicators of the lar-
ger society. Lester (1994b) examined suicides in French prisons
from 1852 through 1913 and found that the prison suicide rate
was positively associated with the overall French male suicide rate.
Furthermore, French marriage and birth rates were related in the
same manner with both the prison suicide rate and the suicide rate
of the males in the general population. Thus, French male prison-
ers appeared to respond in their suicidal behavior to social forces
in the same way as the French male population as a whole. These
 Prison Suicides 415

results were consistent with Durkheims (1897) theory of suicide,

which posited that suicide would be more common when social
integration was weaker (marriage strengthens social integration
while divorce weakens social integration).
In another study, Lester (1999) examined the suicide rate in
Finnish prisons for the period 1969 through 1992. He found that
the Finnish prison suicide rate was associated with the marriage
and divorce rates of Finnish society in the same way as was the sui-
cide rate of all Finnish males. The prison inmate suicide rate and
the Finnish male suicide rate were both negatively associated with
the marriage rate and positively associated with the divorce rate.
Three social indicators (Finnish overall birth, marriage, and div-
orce rates) resulted in an R2 of 0.57 for the prison suicide rate
and 0.88 for the Finnish male suicide rate over the period.
The present study was designed to explore the correlates of
the male suicide rate in state prisons in the United States. It was
hypothesized that there will be a negative relationship between
prison suicide rates and indicators of social integration (marriage,
birth rates) in the larger, free population, and a positive relation-
ship between prison suicides and measures of declining social
bonds, such as divorce.
Additionally, it was hypothesized that there will be a positive
relationship between prison suicide rate and the male suicide rate
in the free population. Finally, it was hypothesized that unemploy-
ment will have a positive relationship with the male suicide rate in
the free population, but no relationship with the prison suicide rate
because prison inmates tend to be rather poor and marginal
members of society and so less likely to be sensitive to changing
unemployment rates than the members of free society.

Method

Data on the United States male prison population and numbers of

prison suicides were obtained from the annual Bureau of Justice
Statistics publication, Correctional Populations in the United States
(annual). The social variables for the larger society were the same
as those used by Lester (1999) in his study of Finnish prison suicide
rates, namely, birth, marriage, and divorce rates, plus unemploy-
ment rates, for the country as a whole. Marriage, birth, divorce,
and unemployment rates were available for the period 1978
416 C. Tartaro and D. Lester

through 1996 from the Statistical Abstracts of the United States

(U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Suicide rates for male residents in
the United States who were at least 15 years old were calculated
based on data from the National Center on Health Statistics
(annual). Male residents under the age of 15 were excluded in an
effort to make the general population suicide statistics comparable
to the prison suicide statistics, which are gathered by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics for the adult prison population. (Adult is defined
by each individual state, so some males under the age of 18 are
included.)
The correlational and regression analyses were carried out
using the Regression Analysis of Time Series (RATS) statistical
package from Doan (1990). Two multiple regression models (sim-
ple [OLS] and using the Cochrane-Orcutt technique to correct for
the serial autocorrelation in the data sets) were used.

Results

Statistics for both the independent and dependent variables are

displayed in Table 1. The United States prison population
increased dramatically during the study period, with a low of
258, 165 in 1978 and a high of 969, 216 in 1996. The number of
suicides among the male prison population also increased, from
60 in 1978 to a high of 155 in 1995 (M 100:27, SD 28:61).
The suicide rate among incarcerated inmates, however, declined
over the 19 years included in this study from 23.24 per 100,000
per year in 1978 to 15.58 per 100,000 in 1996 (M 19:72,
Mdn 18:32, SD 4:43).
Birth rates remained stable over the study period (M 15:67,
Mdn 15:7, SD 0:52). Marriage (M 9:79, Mdn 9:9,
SD 0:78) and divorce rates (M 4:84, Mdn 4:8, SD 0:32)
declined slightly, whereas unemployment rates (M 6:76,
Mdn 6:7, SD 1:28) fluctuated throughout the years.
Pearson correlations are displayed in Table 2. A strong nega-
tive correlation was found between the prison suicide rate and that
for males in the United States who were at least 15 years of age
(r
:57, p < :05). For the prison suicide rate, the strongest corre-
lation between was with the year, indicating that the prison suicide
rate declined during the period studied (r
:83, p < :01).
Both marriage and divorce rates were positively correlated with
 TABLE 1 Yearly Statistics for the United States: 19781996

State male Male prison Male prison Unemployment U.S. male

Year prison population suicides suicide rate Birth rate Marriage rate Divorce rate rate suicide rate

1978 258,165 60 23.24 15.0 10.3 5.1 6.1 24.7

1979 269,140 74 27.49 15.6 10.4 5.3 5.8 24.3
1980 283,099 74 26.14 15.9 10.6 5.2 7.1 24.3
1981 318,921 66 20.69 15.8 10.6 5.3 7.6 24.4
1982 359,452 85 23.65 15.9 10.6 5.1 9.7 25.1
1983 378,276 98 25.91 15.6 10.5 5.0 9.6 25.0
1984 399,303 93 23.29 15.6 10.5 5.0 7.5 25.7
1985 431,844 102 23.62 15.8 10.1 5.0 7.2 25.9
1986 463,950 85 18.32 15.6 10.0 4.9 7.0 26.8
1987 495,195 88 17.77 15.7 9.9 4.8 6.2 26.6
1988 534,335 99 18.53 16.0 9.8 4.8 5.5 26.1
1989 595,434 101 16.96 16.4 9.7 4.7 5.3 25.9
1990 647,409 97 14.98 16.7 9.8 4.7 5.6 26.3
1991 688,677 88 12.78 16.3 9.4 4.7 6.7 26.1
1992 736,949 100 13.57 15.9 9.3 4.8 7.5 25.5
1993 783,100 140 17.88 15.5 9.0 4.6 6.9 25.8
1994 853,659 151 17.69 15.0 9.1 4.6 6.1 25.8
1995 931,174 155 16.65 14.8 7.6 4.1 5.6 25.0
1996 969,216 151 15.58 14.7 8.8 4.3 5.4 25.0
417
418 C. Tartaro and D. Lester

TABLE 2 Correlational Analysis

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. State prison suicide 1.00
.57
.83
.13 .69 .72 .44
rate (males)
2. Male suicide 1.00 .45 .35
.20
.36
.20
rate (ages 15)
3. Year 1.00
.18
.88
.92
.41
4. Birth rate 1.00 .42 .34 .11
5. Marriage rate 1.00 .94 .51
6. Divorce rate 1.00 .48
7. Unemployment rate 1.00


Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

prison suicides (r :69, p < :01, and r :72, p < :01, respect-
ively). Birth and unemployment rates were not associated with
prison suicide rates.
Multiple regression models were developed for both the
prison suicide rate and the male suicide rate in the total population.
Two models were developed for each dependent variable, one
simple model (OLS) and one using the Cochrane-Orcutt technique
to correct for autocorrelation. Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) stat-
istics were generated with the multiple regression models, and this
revealed high correlations between marriage rates, divorce rates,
and year. To rectify this problem, we removed marriage rates
and year from the models that are displayed here.
Regression models for the male prison suicide rates are
displayed in Tables 3 and 4. Birth rates and divorce rates were

TABLE 3 OLS Regression ModelUnited States Male Prison Suicides (State

Prison System)

Variable B Std. error b t Sig.

(Constant) 16.399 19.587 0.837 .416

Birth rate
3.486 1.306
.412
2.670 .017
Divorce rate 11.515 2.455 .818 4.690 .000
Unemployment rate 0.326 0.575 .094 0.567 .579

Note. R 2 :685; Adjusted R 2 :622; Durbin Watson Statistic 1:937.

 Prison Suicides 419

TABLE 4 Regression Model Using Cochrane-OrcuttUnited States Male

Prison Suicides (State Prison System)

Variable B Std. error T Sig.

(Constant) 21.519 20.547 1.047 .314

Birth rate
4.087 1.459
2.802 .015
Divorce rate 12.661 2.743 4.617 .000
Unemployment rate 0.161 0.612 0.262 .797

Note. R 2 :684; Adjusted R 2 :587; Durbin Watson Statistic 1:932.

significant predictors of the prison suicide rate in both the OLS and
the Cochrane-Orcutt models. The data indicated a negative
relationship between the birth rate and the prison suicide rate
and a positive relationship between divorce rate and the prison
suicide rate, and the R2 statistics for both models were quite high
(R 2 :69 for OLS regression and .68 for Cochrane-Orcutt
regression). Unemployment was not associated with prison
suicides.
The OLS model for the total population male suicide rate for
the United States revealed a significant relationship between the
dependent variable and birth and divorce rates (Table 5). The rela-
tionships were in the opposite direction to that for the prison sui-
cide rate. None of the associations remained significant in the
Cochrane-Orcutt model (Table 6).

Discussion

The present results are in accord with those from the earlier studies
on suicide rates in prisons in Finland and France and indicate that
measures of social integration in the larger society are significantly

TABLE 5 OLS Regression ModelUnited States Male Suicide Rate (Age 15)

Variable B Std. error Beta t Sig.

(Constant) 19.776 4.669 4.235 .001

Birth rate 0.760 0.311 .530 2.442 .027
Divorce rate
1.276 0.585
.535
2.180 .046
Unemployment rate
0.002 0.137
.003
0.015 .989

Note. R 2 :377; Adjusted R 2 :252; Durbin Watson Statistic 0:803:

420 C. Tartaro and D. Lester

TABLE 6 Regression Model Using Cochrane-OrcuttUnited States Male

Suicide Rate (Age 15)

Variable B Std. error T Sig.

(Constant) 24.897 6.221 4.002 .002

Birth rate 0.018 0.409 0.045 .964
Divorce rate 0.089 0.780 0.114 .911
Unemployment rate 0.001 0.135 0.008 .994

Note. R 2 :663; Adjusted R 2 :560; Durbin Watson Statistic 1:825.

associated with the suicide rates of those incarcerated in the

society. Prisoners, it appears, are not immune from the social
forces operating in the larger society.
Early thinking on sociological correlates held that these social
indicators directly impacted upon the suicide rate. More recently,
it has been suggested that the social indicators are indices of gen-
eral characteristics of or forces in the society and that it is these
characteristics or forces that affect the suicide rate (Lester,
1994a). Thus, it is possible that the social forces operating in the
society as a whole might have an impact on all segments of the
society.
In the present study, the divorce rate and birth rate were both
significant predictors of the prison suicide rate. As was predicted,
the birth rate was positively associated with the prison suicide rate,
while there was a negative relationship between the prison suicide
rate and the divorce rate. These relationships existed in both OLS
and Cochrane-Orcutt models and are consistent with Durkheims
(1897) theory of suicide. The unemployment rate was not related
to the prison suicide rate as predicted.
Support for Durkheims theory was not found when consider-
ing the suicide rate of males at least 15 years of age in the United
States population as a whole. The social indicators used here (birth,
marriage, and divorce rates) as well as the economic measure
(unemployment) were not significantly associated with male sui-
cides in the free population during the study period, in contradic-
tion to predictions from Durkheims theory. These results for the
male population of the United States are not consistent with those
reported by Lester and Yang (1998) for the period 19501985
when the marriage rate was negatively associated and the divorce
rate was positively associated with the male suicide rate, results in
 Prison Suicides 421

reasonably good concurrence with predictions from Durkheims

theory. Most likely, it is not calculating suicide rates based on
the population over the age of 15 (rather than on the total male
population) that accounts for the present puzzling results, but
rather the different time period. For the period of 19781996,
when divorce and marriage rates were declining, social indicators
may have different meanings (or assess different social dimensions)
than in the earlier period studied by Lester and Yang. For
example, marriage rates today are comprised to a much larger
extent of re-marriages than in the past (when a higher percentage
were first marriages). In line with this possibility, Stack (1981)
found that the period chosen for study affected the results
obtained: divorce played a less important role in predicting the
American suicide rate prior to World War 2 than afterwards.
The decline in the prison suicide rate over the study period is
noteworthy because the male suicide rate in the United States as a
whole remained rather constant from 1978 through 1996 (with a
slight peak in 1986). Perhaps this is due to the increasing attention
paid to suicide in prison over this period, spurred by such initia-
tives as the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives and
especially by the lawsuits claiming damages from prisons that have
failed to prevent inmate suicides. Jails and prisons that do not have
an adequate suicide prevention program in place are going to be
held liable for considerable damages these days. Another possible
issue that is beyond the scope of this study is the impact of crowd-
ing in American prisons. Hayes (1989), in a study by the National
Center on Institutions and Alternatives, reported that two thirds of
suicides in the U.S. jail and detention centers occur in isolation.
Although the current study focused on prisons rather than jails, this
consideration may also apply to prison suicides.
Future research should examine the generality of the present
findings in later time periods. Research should also examine mea-
sures of social integration and regulation within prisons, such
inmate housing patterns, the extent of visitors, the divorce rate
for prisoners while incarcerated, and so on. It would be expected
that indices of social integration within the prison would be more
powerful predictors of the inmate suicide rate than indices from the
larger society, despite their success in predicting inmate suicide
rates in this study and in the previous studies in Finland and
France.
422 C. Tartaro and D. Lester

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