Social Integration, Imitation, and the Geographic Patterning of Suicide

摘要: One of sociology's defining debates centers on explanations the geographic patterning suicide. This classic debate is revisited using techniques spatial analysis and data for two geographies: late nineteenth-century French departments, twentieth-century U.S. counties. Results contradict Durkheim's claim that "imitation" plays no role in shaping Suicide rates northern southern departments cluster geographically even when clustering multiple dimensions social integration controlled. These findings are replicated a contemporary nonwestern American West, however, support Durkheimian view suicide clusters space only because important structural predictors suicide, including measures integration, do so as well. discrepant reconciled it concluded shaped by both imitation.