Ready to die: a postmodern interpretation of the increase of African-American adolescent male suicide

Abstract

African-Americans have typically registered lower rates of suicide than other ethnic groups. In the last 20 years this pattern has changed, particularly among young African-Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Mortality Statistics, 1998, Atlanta, GA). Today, young African-American males are as likely to commit suicide as their White counterparts. To date, the research conducted regarding this phenomenon has been inconclusive and existing suicide interventions appear to have no effect on reducing this behavior among young African-Americans. This paper synthesizes classical (Durkheim Suicide, 1979 Free Press, New York) and postmodern (Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, 1992, Sage, London; Bauman, Modernity and Ambivalence, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1991) social theories in order to provide a more complete theoretical explanation for the increase in the suicide rate among adolescent African-American males. Postmodern society is typified by: (1) institutional deconstruction; (2) decreased collectivism; (3) increased normlessness and helplessness; and (4) exacerbated personal risk for stress. It is therefore possible to hypothesize that postmodernity characteristically loosens the bonds between the individual and society, thereby increasing vulnerability to depression, related pathologies (such as substance abuse), and suicide. African-Americans tend to be more affected/vulnerable because they are concentrated in resource-poor, low income areas, and institutions that provided social support (family, religious, community) and protected individuals from societal risk factors, have gradually been dissolving in postmodern societies. We argue that young African-American males of today are more exposed to stressors which increase psychological distress thus increasing depression and related pathological behaviors such as suicide. The main reason behind this increase is found in the inability of institutions to offer protection from psychological distress. Overall, this paper presents a postmodern, macro-level framework to explain the increase in suicide among African-American male adolescents.

Introduction

The primary purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical explanation for the increase in African-American adolescent male suicides, integrating theories of suicide, postmodern society, with respect to African-American culture. Its secondary purpose is to suggest directions for future research on this topic. This will entail synthesizing classical and postmodern social theories to provide a contemporary sociological understanding of suicide. We offer (1) a review of Durkheim's theory of suicide, noting its shortcomings in describing African-American adolescent male suicide; (2) an overview of late modern and postmodern theory according to Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman, and the role of postmodern conditions with regard to suicide; (3) a critique of classical and postmodern theories with respect to children and adolescents; (4) a review of the literature on the African-American community and its increasing vulnerability to suicide; and (5) a synthesis of classical, modern, and postmodern social theory explaining the increase of African-American Adolescent male suicide, and directions for future research.

Suicide is defined by O’Carroll et al. (1996, pp. 246–247) as “death from injury, poisoning or suffocation where there is evidence that the injury was self inflicted and that the decedent intended to kill himself/herself”. Today's societies continue to experience periods of rapid exponential change due to improvements in communications and transportation, economic growth, and increases in population density. As these changes occur, deeper underlying, societal transformations take place. Social theorists like Beck (1992) and Bauman (1991), Bauman (1992), Bauman (1995) view society as being in a transition period from the modern to the postmodern, “Just as modernization dissolved the structure of feudal society in the nineteenth century and produced the industrial society, modernization today is dissolving industrial society and another modernization is coming into being” (Beck, 1992, p. 10). These considerable transformations cause many individuals stress, as they must adapt to rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable circumstances. Moreover, these social changes may greatly weaken the individual's bond with society resulting in states of normlessness, helplessness, and hopelessness. These developments, in turn, may increase the risk of suicide.

Traditionally, African-Americans, regardless of socio-economic status (SES), registered lower rates of suicide than other ethnic groups in the United States (Bingham, Bennion, Openshaw, & Adams, 1994). Previous research suggests that African-American cultural characteristics, like high levels of religiosity and collectivism, served as protection against suicide (Lester, 1998; Shaffer, Gould, & Hicks, 1994). Over the course of the last 20 years, this pattern has changed significantly, particularly among children and youth aged 10–19 (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 1998). As of 1995, suicide was the third leading cause of death among African-Americans males aged 15–19 (American Association of Suicidology, 1996). Data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 1980 to 1995 reveal an increasing incidence and susceptibility of African-American adolescent males to suicide. Data in Table 1 indicate that the rate of suicide has more than doubled among African-American males aged 10–19. For the first time, young African-American males are almost as likely to commit suicide as their White peers.

Table 2 reveals that during the same 15-year period, homicide rates also increased dramatically. Understanding the increase in homicide is important given the relationship between homicide and suicide that Durkheim and other theorists have observed. In his book on suicide, Durkheim speculated that the same social conditions that precipitate suicide may lead to high levels of homicide (Durkheim, 1979).

Contemporary researchers have taken this relationship further and theorized that many homicides are another form of suicide. Studies like those of Wolfgang (1959), Farberow (1977), Gibbs (1988), Firestone (1997), and the SEIC (1999) have speculated that some homicides are victim-precipitated, meaning an actor intentionally places himself or herself in a position where he or she is likely to be slain by another. The most common forms of victim-precipitated homicide are by legal intervention (lethal force used by law enforcement, e.g. police officer, security guard) and victim-acquaintance precipitated homicide (whereby a suicidal person knowingly and deliberately provokes someone familiar to kill him or her) (Wolfgang, 1959). Thus, some homicides and suicides may be related because both are potentially self-inflicted with suicide being the most overt type of self-destruction (Holinger & Klemen, 1982). Because of this it may be important to examine changes in homicide rates for certain populations when analyzing changes in their suicide rates. In any case, increasing suicide and homicide rates both reflect major social changes affecting African-American communities.

An explanation for the increase in suicide is needed particularly since suicide prevention programs are relatively ineffective in preventing suicide in the African-American community (CDC, 1998; Gibbs, 1997; Lester, 1998). The shortfall of existing interventions may be due to lack of proper respect being paid to cultural differences (particularly the culture of risk), as well as differences in resiliency (Barbarin, 1993). Thus, some risk factors generally associated with suicide and suicidal behaviors may not apply among African-American youth such as increased education, and school-related problems like poor grades and peer rejection, greater wealth, lower fertility, and previous suicide attempts (Burr, Hartman, & Matheson, 1999; Garland & Zigler, 1993; Lester, 1998). Risk factors for suicide that African-American youth do share with other groups are depression, impulsive/aggressive behaviors, as well as extreme social isolation and unemployment (West, 1997; Brown et al., 1995; Feldman & Wilson, 1997). Since traditional programs in place for the general adolescent population are ineffective for African-American youth there is a need to develop culturally sensitive interventions. However, in order to develop effective interventions that take the cultural context and circumstances of African-American youth into account, research is needed to identify risk factors uniquely associated with African-American male suicide, for example, the manner in which racism, through discrimination, impacts on mental health thereby increasing suicide risk (Poussaint & Alexander, 2000; Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999). Given the limited theoretical and empirical knowledge about African-American suicide, it may also be time to re-evaluate and move beyond traditional theories and conceptualizations of suicide to recognize that the catalyst of this phenomenon is the societal transition from modernity to postmodernity.