Durkheim has the most comprehensive theories regarding suicide. He associates suicidal tendencies to social integration and social bonds. The majority of research found regarding suicide relates back to Durkheim’s theories, but elaborates on the attachments to social institutions and the community. Religiosity and the bonding that occurs within religious structures tend to have the most prominent affect on suicidal predispositions. Below are theories outlining religious ties to suicidal tendencies it’s correlation to the increase in suicide rates among blacks.

Urban Stress or "Frustration-Aggression" is a theory presented by Seiden which explains the high suicide rates among young blacks as a result of high unemployment rates, inadequate education, poor housing, and poor parenting (Phylon). Not being able to overcome these stresses of society and the environment blacks grow up in they are socialized into using two forms of suicide. "Victim-Precipitated" although it is technically homicide, it has essentially been seen as a suicide because the victim arranges or demands to be killed. This type of suicide can be compared to Police suicide in which the person provokes another individual to killing them. Another suicide Seiden says blacks use in dealing with the difficulties of racist institutions and urban life stresses is "Revolutionary suicide". This type of suicide is in response to reactionary conditions. Blacks desire to change the system and sometimes die trying. Revolutionary suicide is akin to Emile Durkheim’s "fatalistic suicide". Fatalistic suicide results from extreme regulation or oppression. Revolutionary suicide is the attempt to break from the oppressive nature of society.

A second theory presented by Moynihan’s is "Black female-Black male" Relations or Black Family Deficit Theory. This theory fails to adequately address the increase in suicide among young blacks. It attempts to explain the suicide rate of young black males as a result of not having masculine male role models to look up to. Therefore, it is believed in the early years of young black males lives psychological damage is caused as a result of lacking sensitive, strong, masculine father figures. Moynihan’s viewpoint of the black family is they barely meet the fundamental needs of its members for survival and socialization pointing to the pressures of the black family and how they handicap the males.

The work of Durkheim still dominates the theories of suicide. According to him the social phenomenon of suicide was not to be found in psychological or biological reductionism, but in social facts. With this Durkheim came up with four categories of suicide, two of which are used to help explain Status Integration or "Cultural Shock" Theory which was developed by Gibbs and Martin. Egoistic suicide is a result of the individual’s lack of integration into society, which some would argue affects blacks because they are unable to compete on equal terms in a technologically oriented society because they are prevented from acquiring the skills necessary for this type of society (Jedlicka, Shin, and Lee). Anomic suicide results from a society’s inability to regulate the individual. In American society the sudden rise in upward mobility gave rise to adjustment and assimilation problems of blacks, which is said to result in internal alienation, leading to suicidal destruction. Furthermore, both types of suicide tend to fit blacks who are highly gifted and educated seeking middle or higher management and professional roles (Summer) in hopes of social acceptance. When blacks achieve the American middle and upper-middle class life they find it produces a great deal of frustration because they also inherit the economic, social, and psychological tensions that come with it, this is also referred to as the "glass ceiling race discrimination phenomenon" (Summer). Unlike their white counterparts, blacks are not used to the economic, social, and psychological tension and therefore feel they are forced to play a part. The failure of many blacks to properly adjust to these social changes results in suicide.

The Network theory, which offers people social support protects against suicide, has been the underlying condition argued by Pescosolido and Georgianna. Pescosolido and Georgianna elaborated on Durkheim’s work of the religious networks approach. Saying it is not the sheer number of beliefs and practice of a religious group (Durkheim) but more the social support derived from networking with co-religionists lowers suicide. Alvin Poussaint and Amy Alexander state that post the American Civil War "the vast majority of blacks in this country had been converted to Christianity. There was a strong belief among blacks that suicide was a sin that would prevent one’s soul from entering heaven." According Poussaint and Alexander black males are more likely to engage in self destructive behavior because they do not have built up networks of family ties like black women do or religious affiliations to comfort them in times of need. Black women are more likely to "be influenced by religious taboos that view suicide as a sin" making them less likely to engage in suicidal behaviors then black males. As young black men strive to acquire social acceptance and social opportunities in American main stream society it tends to weaken or loosen communal and family ties. In the past suicide had been offset for blacks because they used families, communities, and institutions to develop positive and functional forms of response to stress and anxieties which decreased the likelihood suicide. However, young blacks today think that money means happiness and automatic assimilation into main stream society so they disregard their black community which has functioned as a protective society. It allowed them to have a purpose by participating and having a sense of belongingness, instead young blacks would rather increase their individual profit in hopes of social acceptance. As a result young black men tend not to use their resources within the black community and do not seek professional help for personal failures and frustrations therefore internalizing these feelings leading to alienation and the likelihood of self-destruction. Shared practices like networking and social support are important mainly because they offer strong social ties and important social systems.