Social‐psychological principles in criminal justice processing

Based on 1979–1981 and 1989–1991 vital registration and 1980 and 1990 census data, we construct increment‐decrement life tables for rural and urban males and females. The analysis is centered on 1980 and 1990 and describes urban‐rural differences in patterns of mortality and nuptiality by age and sex. Our research updates an earlier study that described urban‐rural mortality and marital transition patterns for Tennessee, 1970. The 1980 and 1990 findings parallel the 1970 results. Rural women and men have shorter life expectancies; higher infant mortality rates; younger median ages of entry into first marriage, divorce, and widowhood; a greater proportion of their cohorts ever marrying; lower probabilities of divorce; and higher probabilities of widowhood than urban women and men. However, there was a decline in urban‐rural differences from 1970–1990. These changes suggest that urbanization, technological advances in communication and transportation, and the diffusion of urban lifestyles and values may have blurred the urban‐rural distinction.