Spatial Analyses of Homicide with Areal Data

Abstract

Abstract In a widely cited article, Land et al. (1990) noted an important development in sociological studies of crime over the previous two decades. There had been a remarkable upsurge in the volume of empirical studies seeking to explain why different areal units—e.g., cities, metropolitan areas, and states—have high or low homicide rates (Land et al. 1990, 922). Much of this research was inspired by theoretical debates surrounding a distinctively geographic issue: the historically high homicide rates in the South (Hawley and Messner 1989). However, with the exception of this focus on regional differences in overall levels of homicide, the early work on the social structural covariates of homicide rates was largely insensitive to spatial context.