The Psychology of Homicide, Divorce and Issues in Marriages: Mental Health and Family Life Matters

Abstract

Introduction: The homicide pandemic has continued unabated and no empirical enquiry has emerged in criminology, sociology, psychology or public health in Caribbean literature which evaluates whether or not divorce has any effect on homicide. Objectives: The aims of this study are to 1) evaluate factors that explain the interplay between homicide and divorce and marriages in Jamaica; and 2) provide theories for the uxoricides. Materials and methods: The data for this study was obtained from various Jamaica Government Publications. The period for this work was from 1950 through 2013. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses and curve estimations were used to determine models and best fitted models. Results: The factors of divorce were homicide, population and GDP per capita, with those variables explaining 77.5% of the variance in divorce. A strong correlation between homicides and divorce still emerged after controlling for GDP per capita (or income; rxy = 0.843, P<0.0001). Poverty rate and the exchange rate accounted for 83.8% of the variance in homicides. Of the seven selected variables used at once in the OLS, three emerged as factors for divorce rate (exchange rate, mortality rate and poverty rate). Both factors determined 61.4% of the variance in the divorce rate. Poverty accounted for 47.0% of the variability in the marriage rate and was inversely related to the marriage rate. Hence, lower rates of poverty mean greater number of marriages and vice versa. Conclusion: Divorce produces issues, which are sometimes not fully captured in the data. Further studies on the psychology of divorce are needed from a qualitative perspective to unearth real meaning behind the behaviour of depressed adults and psychological deficient children following romantic relationship separation. We are therefore proposing that poverty and divorce as well as separation from sexual partner should be treated with the same degree of urgency and significance as non-communicable diseases. The destruction of families from divorce is such that we are forwarding it to be a psychosocial disease likened to an infectious disease that can cause a pandemic if not probably cauterized.