TESTING THE COHORT SIZE HYPOTHESIS OF SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE RATES IN CANADA AND THE UNITED-STATES

Suicide and homicide can be seen as interwoven expressions of lethal v iolence. Both forms of annihilation result from a combination of negat ive life events. Easterlin/Holinger suggested that one such event migh t result from the impact of the size of the cohort on the behavior of its own cohort as well as the behavior of other cohorts. A study of Ca nada and the United States from 1969 to 1987 indicated that the suicid e rates of males aged 20 to 34 were positively associated with their r elative cohort size, lending some support to the hypothesis that large cohort sizes result in relative deprivation for young adults. The coh ort size hypothesis was not strongly supported by data for homicide an d by data for women. A word of caution is provided about the fact that cohort size is measured differently by various researchers, suggestin g prudence in comparisons across studies. This study, however, does pr esent data using the most common measures. These results converge with the general findings.