ABSTRACT
A tendency toward violence has been one of the character traits most frequently attributed to Southerners. Violence in the South has three dimensions. In relation to North, there are high rates of homicide and assault, moderate rates of crime against property, and low rates of suicide. The relationship between homicide and suicide rates in a given group is best expressed by a suicide-homicide ratio (SHR) (SHR=100 [Suicides/ Suicides+Homicides]). The assault rate is extremely high in the South, indicating that Southerners react with physical hostility even without guns. Several commentators have suggested that the habit of carrying guns in the South made murder a much more frequent outcome of altercations among Southerners than among Northerners. From the Southern past arise the symbiosis of profuse hospitality and intense hostility toward strangers and the paradox that the Southern heritage is at the same time one of grace and violence.
