A Subjective Index of American Social, Economic, and Political Threat, war and Personal Violence

This study explored whether the McCann-Stewin threat index added any significant amount to the predictability of suicide & homicide rates in the USA. McCann & Stewin (1990) asked 196 American history professors to rate each year from 1920 to 1986 for the degree to which social, political & economic threat was present. Time-series & full multiple regressions from 1933-86 showed that this index was not as strongly associated with the suicide & homicide rates as was the military participation rate.