Trends and Risk Factors for Prisoner Suicide in France
Géraldine Duthé, Angélique Hazard, Annie Kensey
France currently has a very high level of prisoner suicides. Between 2005 and 2010, the mean annual rate was 18.5 suicides per 10,000 prisoners, seven times higher than for the general population. In this article, we begin by describing how suicide has changed since the mid-nineteenth century, highlighting the increasingly specific nature of suicide among prisoners versus non-prisoners. We then analyse the associations between individual characteristics and suicide risk, based on information from the French prison service’s database on all prison terms served in France between 1 January 2006 and 15 July 2009. Over this period, nearly 378,000 terms were observed (corresponding to more than 221,000 person-years) and 378 suicides were identified. Our results confirm the vulnerability of pre-trial detainees, and show that isolation, be it physical or social, is a key component of suicide risk, along with the type of offence resulting in imprisonment. Improving the conditions of detention is one of the priorities of prevention policies now being implemented, but the nature of the offence must also be taken into account as a suicide risk factor.
The Role of Inheritance and Labour Income in Marital Choices
Nicolas Frémeaux
This article investigates the importance of inherited wealth in marital choices in France. Drawing on data from the Actifs financiers and Patrimoine French wealth surveys, we use information about parental wealth to estimate respondents’ expected inherited wealth over their lifetime so that we can study total inherited wealth. There is clear evidence of positive assortative mating based on inheritance. It is also very unlikely for a non-inheritor to marry a top inheritor (either male or female). While education explains a large part of marital sorting based on permanent income, it accounts for just 20% of the overall correlation for inherited wealth. We also show that inheritance and labour income are poor substitutes, since labour income only partially compensates for a lack of parental wealth. Our estimates show that the degree of marital sorting remained stable between 1992 and 2010, and substitutability increased slightly at the end of the study period. Two mechanisms may explain these findings: the socialization process and the effect of preferences. These new results are key to understanding the dynamics of inequalities and, more especially, the consequences of long-term changes in the role of inheritance in rich countries.
Do Vanguard Populations Pave the Way Towards Higher Life Expectancy for Other Population Groups?
Domantas Jasilionis, Vladimir M. Shkolnikov, Evgueni M. Andreev, Dmitri A. Jdanov, Denny Vågerö, France Meslé, Jacques Vallin
Do vanguard populations open new frontiers of survival and longevity that will eventually be reached by others? The main aim of this study is to identify the extent to which the non-vanguard populations in Finland, Norway, and Sweden might follow the mortality trajectories of the vanguard groups in these countries for different age ranges and for the major causes of death. The results show no systematic convergence between vanguard and non-vanguard sub-populations. On the contrary, they confirm the theory whereby each major epidemiological development initially gives rise to divergence in mortality trends. Our study found that at the sub-national level, rather than simply following (with a certain time lag) the same path as the vanguard groups, non-vanguard groups have their own pathways to low mortality which are related to specific determinants of mortality change. The study also found that a long time is needed for the non-vanguard group to attain the mortality levels already reached by the vanguard group at the start of the observation period. This is notably the case for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
Immigrant Families’ Relationship with the School System: A Survey of Four Working-Class Suburban High Schools
Mathieu Ichou, Marco Oberti
This article provides an empirical analysis of immigrant families’ relationship with the school system in workingclass suburbs of Paris. The findings are based on a multivariate analysis of a questionnaire survey (N = 1,191) as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with parents of students in four high schools in the Seine-Saint-Denis département. We show that a migration background shapes parents’ relationship with the school system. Stronger community educational support and higher educational aspirations are observed among immigrant parents compared to native parents of the same social backgrounds living in the same neighbourhoods. Among immigrant families, parents from Turkey and Asia differ most with respect to native parents in their relationship with the school system. The former tend to turn much more often to their local community for educational support, while the latter are characterized by especially high educational aspirations. These findings call for future systematic analyses of migrants’ pre-migration experiences and characteristics in order to shed light on their subsequent trajectories and attitudes in the country of immigration.
Effects of Parental Leave Policies on Second Birth Risks and Women’s Employment Entry
Anna Matysiak, Ivett Szalma
In this article, we discuss how paid and unpaid parental leave entitlements shape women’s employment (re-)entry after the birth of their first child and the progression to a second child. We compare Hungary and Poland, two low-fertility countries which share many similarities in their institutional, cultural and economic frameworks but which differ in their parental leave provision. The parental leave mandate in Hungary is universal and provides much higher financial compensation than does the means-tested programme in Poland. Our findings show that paid parental leave leads to substantial delays in women’s entry into employment, but encourages progression to a second child: Hungarian women who are on leave are more likely to conceive a second child than their working counterparts. Polish women, for their part, have a higher propensity to enter employment shortly after the first birth than Hungarian mothers. However, it seems that while parental leave payments have an impact on birth timing, they do not influence the quantum of second births. Finally, we find that a woman’s educational level does not modify the effects of parental leave on second birth risks, but has a clear effect on mothers’ intensities of employment entry after leave: highly educated women clearly have a higher propensity for taking up work than lower educated women in both countries.
