Victims of violence in Fiji

The aim of the paper is to examine the statistics for violence performed by self or others in Fiji during the period 1969-1989 in the following sub-classifications: (1) fatal vs non-fatal; (2) Fijian vs Indian; and (3) male vs female.

Crude rates per 100,000 were determined and the data sets were statistically examined.

(1) Violence by self, which includes suicide and non-fatal injury by self, has significantly increased; (2) Indian violence by self has increased in both males and females; (3) suicide is 4 times more common than homicide, whereas non-fatal injury by others is 4 times more common than non-fatal injury by self; (4) non-fatal injury by self is 8 times more common than suicide, whereas non-fatal injury by others is over 100 times more common than homicide; (5) Indian violence by self is 6 times more common than Fijian violence by self, whereas Fijians experience violence by others 2.5 times more commonly than Indians; (6) female violence by self is 1.5 times more common than male violence by self, whereas male violence by others is 3 times more common than female violence by others; (7) the rates of suicide and homicide are low by international standards; and (8) Fijian violence by self is particularly low, but consistent with the low suicide rate of the indigenous populations in surrounding geographical regions.

Our findings suggest that racial differences in violence are likely to be due to cultural factors.