Alienation: Its Meaning and Measurement

Abstract

Unlike murder rates, those for suicide are increasing. This trend is historically related to increasing literacy, urbanization, and a larger middle class. Higher status and moral commitment for these persons preclude murder; suicide emerges as a manifestation of increasing numbers of persons in an insecure achieved status. Whether trends, rural-urban areas, or characteristics of individual cases are compared, there is basis for concluding that increasing participation in an achievement as opposed to an ascribed status system is a necessary precondition for increasing rates of specified forms of deviance. The relationships, however, depend on the proportion of persons in the various status positions of the population and the stresses and strains that are subjectively experienced. Conceptually, it appears that stresses of a status position induce varying orientations to society (subcultural norms as intervening variables) which in turn facilitate or inhibit certain types of deviance. Differential rates of homicide and suicide are the direct effects of variations in these normative orientations. disputes where assailant or victim land 35 and 13 per cent vs. 12 and 14 per cent (N=84, 38 vs. 51, 21, combining and neither own for Kandyan and Ceylon Tamil, x2=l3.12, 2 d.f., P<.05).