Skip to main content
Public Health Reports logoLink to Public Health Reports
. 1992 May-Jun;107(3):264–268.

Blue Thursday? Homicide and suicide among urban 15-24-year-old black male Americans.

M Greenberg 1, D Schneider 1
PMCID: PMC1403645  PMID: 1594735

Abstract

A comparative analysis was made of day of the week variations in homicide and suicide deaths among 15-24-year-old white males, black males, white females, and black females in the 22 counties with the most black persons in the United States. Thirty-seven percent of black Americans and 14 percent of white Americans lived in these densely populated counties. The authors expected a weekend excess of homicide and a Monday excess of suicide. They found a pronounced excess of homicides on weekends, especially among white males. A slight excess of suicide was observed on Monday, but other slight excesses of suicide were also found. Young black males exhibited an unexpected excess of homicides and suicides on Thursday. On Thursdays the black male-white male ratio for homicide was 1.43 and for suicide, 1.26. Possible explanations for the young black males' blue Thursday phenomenon are offered.

Full text

PDF
264

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Edwards J. E., Whitlock F. A. Suicide and attempted suicide in Brisbane. 1. Med J Aust. 1968 Jun 1;1(22):932–938. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fingerhut L. A., Kleinman J. C. International and interstate comparisons of homicide among young males. JAMA. 1990 Jun 27;263(24):3292–3295. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Greenberg M. R., Carey G. W., Popper F. J. Violent death, violent states, and American youth. Public Interest. 1987;(87):38–48. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Greenberg M., Naus J., Schneider D., Wartenberg D. Temporal clustering of homicide among urban 15- to 24-year-old white and black Americans. Ethn Dis. 1991 Fall;1(4):342–350. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Griffith E. E., Bell C. C. Recent trends in suicide and homicide among blacks. JAMA. 1989 Oct 27;262(16):2265–2269. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jenkins J., Sainsbury P. Single-car road deaths--disguised suicides? Br Med J. 1980 Oct 18;281(6247):1041–1041. doi: 10.1136/bmj.281.6247.1041. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lester D. Temporal variation in suicide and homicide. Am J Epidemiol. 1979 May;109(5):517–520. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112709. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. MacMahon K. Short-term temporal cycles in the frequency of suicide. United States, 1972-1978. Am J Epidemiol. 1983 Jun;117(6):744–750. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113608. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Meares R., Mendelsohn F. A., Milgrom-Friedman J. A sex difference in the seasonal variation of suicide rate: a single cycle for men, two cycles for women. Br J Psychiatry. 1981 Apr;138:321–325. doi: 10.1192/bjp.138.4.321. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Phillips D. P., Liu J. The frequency of suicides around major public holidays: some surprising findings. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1980 Spring;10(1):41–50. doi: 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1980.tb00696.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Warren C. W., Smith J. C., Tyler C. W. Seasonal variation in suicide and homicide: a question of consistency. J Biosoc Sci. 1983 Jul;15(3):349–356. doi: 10.1017/s0021932000014693. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Zung W. W., Green R. L., Jr Seasonal variation of suicide and depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1974 Jan;30(1):89–91. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1974.01760070067010. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Public Health Reports are provided here courtesy of SAGE Publications

RESOURCES