The Systemic Model of Social Disorganization and Homicide and Suicide Trajectories in South Korean Community Areas: Testing the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10575677221082072
• Author: Sujung Cho,Shannon B. Harper
• Date: 01 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Original Articles

The Systemic Model of Social

Disorganization and Homicide

and Suicide Trajectories in

South Korean Community

Areas: Testing the Stream

Analogy of Lethal Violence

Sujung Cho

1

and Shannon B. Harper

2

Abstract

The stream analogy of lethal violence (SALV) argues that homicide and suicide are similarly driven by

frustration and aggression. SALV research has examined forces of production (i.e., lethal violence

rate [LVR]) and forces of direction (i.e., suicide-homicide ratio [SHR]). The current study applies

6 foundational social disorganization theory (i.e., the systemic model) structura l predictors and 3

unique social controls to help explain the LVR and SHR. Using data from 229 South Korean com-

munity areas, the study tracked lethal violence for 6 years for each area, yielding 1,374 observations

for analysis. Findings reveal mixed support for the systemic model. Urban area was negatively asso-

ciated with the SHR’s initial level, but positively associated with increased SHR rates of change.

Variations in the residential instability and divorce rates had positive effects on only the initial

LVR level. Children’s nursery facilities fully mediated the link between structural characteristics

and increased SHR rates of change.

Keywords

Stream analogy of lethal violence, homicide, suicide, social disorganization, social control, growth

curve modeling

Introduction

Homicide and suicide are two leading causes of death across the globe creating pervasive individ-

ual, community, and social harm. Homicide and suicide have historically been studied separately due

1

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA

2

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sujung Cho, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Drive Faner Hall, Mail

Code 4504, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.

Email: sujung.cho@siu.edu

Original Article

International Criminal Justice Review

2023, Vol. 33(4) 384-405

© 2022 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10575677221082072

journals.sagepub.com/home/icj

to social perceptions of homicide as a crime problem and suicide as a mental health problem (He

et al., 2003; Liem, Hengeveld, & Koenraadt, 2009), as well as conf‌licting scholarly perspectives

about the presence or absence of an interrelationship (Durkheim, [1897] 1951; Unnithan et al.,

1994). More recent research has examined both acts as interrelated. Building off the work of foun-

dational scholars (i.e., Dollard et al., 1939; Henry & Short, 1954), Unnithan et al. (1994) examined

homicide and suicide simultaneously and determined that both share the same underlying causes –

frustration and aggression –with homicide involving outward-directed aggression, and suicide

involving inward-directed aggression.

The scholars developed the stream analogy of lethal violence (SALV), an integrated model of

homicide and suicide that incorporates attribution theory, to explain how strain/frustration are the

principal causes of murder and “self-murder.”

1

The SALV characterizes the total amount of lethal

violence as a single stream of water with homicide and suicide representing two distinct “currents”

of that stream. SALV scholarship is limited and has primarily examined (1) forces of production –the

total rate of lethal violence in a nation –the size or stream of suicide plus homicide referred to as the

lethal violence rate (LVR); and (2) forces of direction –the proportion of total lethal violence

expressed as either homicide or suicide referred to as the suicide-homicide ratio (SHR) (Unnithan

et al., 1994).

Research examining the relationship between the SALV, and community-level structural factors

has focused primarily on western nations with minimal attention paid to Asian countries such as

South Korea (hereafter: “Korea”or “South Korea”), the focus of the current study. The South

Korea rate of homicide is about 3 times the rate of other Asian countries (Sea & Beauregard,

2019), and the rate of suicide at 26.9 suicides per 100,000 persons is the 4

th

highest in the world

(World Health Organization, 2019). Using 6-year nationally representative data and latent growth

curve modeling (LGCM), this is the f‌irst study to examine how systemic model of social disorgani-

zation (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993) structural factors and unique social controls affect longitudinal

variation in the rate of change in the LVR and SHR across South Korean community areas.

Furthermore, the present study provides unique theoretical development –i.e., while the systemic

model is a criminological theory, we argue that it is also relevant to an examination of suicide as

part of the SALV conceptual framework due to its overlap with Émile Durkheim’s ([1897] 1951)

highly inf‌luential sociological theory of suicide.

South Korea: Demographics and Culture

In 2019, the Korean population was 51.6 million people and had an unemployment rate of 3.76%

and a poverty rate of 12% for people under age 34, and 64% for people over age 65 (Organisation for

Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD], 2019). The latter statistic is a cause of great

concern for the country as the traditional expectation that children will fulf‌ill their f‌ilial duties and

care for their parents (despite decreasing income growth) has stif‌led development of social safety

net/welfare infrastructure (Shin & Kong, 2014). Income inequality and poverty have also increased

in South Korea since the 2000s, triggered by f‌inancial economic crises in 1997 and 2008 (Shin &

Kong, 2014).

South Koreans have historically culturally valued collectivism, which emphasizes the importance

of family unity and individuals working toward the development and sustainment of a good and

moral collective society (Im, Park, & Ratcliff, 2018) (similar to Durkheim’s [(1897) 1951]

concept of social integration, see Conceptual Framework section). Culturally shared perceptions

and values specif‌ic to the meaning of suicide are closely aligned with Confucianism (Hyung Keun

Park et al., 2016; Im et al., 2018). If an individual kills themselves without purpose, willfully, and

due to self-serving motivations (def‌ined by Durkheim [(1897) 1951] as “egoistic suicide”), commu-

nity members and society overall perceive them as lacking moral character (Im et al., 2018). The

Cho and Harper 385