National Homicide Rates Research Articles

Finno-Ugrians and Homicide

The percentage of Finno-Ugrians in the population in 30 European nations in 1990 was not associated with the national homicide rates.

Population growth, economic inequality, and homicide

Empirical research and theorizing on cross-national variations in homicide have been limited by an exclusive focus on the direct effects of national structural characteristics on the rates of homicide. This study is designed to extend this growing body of literature by advancing a conceptual model accounting for an important underlying feature of societies that indirectly elevates national homicide rates. Specifically, it is proposed that a high rate of population growth may have a direct role in bifurcating the distribution of national wealth. Population growth should therefore indirectly increase homicide rates through this mediating factor. This hypothesis is tested with data from 50 nations circa 1990. The data support the expected relationship, indicating (net of several controls) that rapid population growth is an underlying barrier to low homicide rates across nations. The main theoretical implication is that the often observed inverse relationship between level of development and rates of homicide appears to be indirectly driven by differential population dynamics.

Armed Americans: The impact of firearm availability on national homicide rates*

This study examines the relationship between firearm availability and national homicide rates. The theoretical and empirical literatures are reviewed, and a cross-national two-stage least squares regression analysis is described. The relationship between a circa 1990 measure of firearm availability and the average 1990–1994 homicide rate is examined across 36 countries. Two-stage least squares regression, which controls for homicide's effect on firearm availability in addition to a number of other confounding factors, reveals a statistically significant positive effect of firearm availability on national homicide rates. The magnitude of the association is considerable. The observed relationship is found to be insensitive to sample composition. Results also indicate that homicide rates do not influence levels of firearm availability. The limitations of the study and avenues for future research are discussed.

Gender, Attributional Styles, and Direction of Lethal Violence

The present study is a partial test of Unnithan, Huff-Corzine, Corzine, and Whitt's integrated model of suicide and homicide, focusing specifically on gender differences in the suicide-to-homicide ratio (SHR). In light of prior research on the differential attributional styles of men and women, the underlying assumption of Unnithan et al. regarding attribution of blame and direction of lethal violence is assessed. Using aggregate national suicide and homicide rates for the years 1979 through 1997, SHRs and lethal violence rates (LVRs) are calculated and compared by gender. Analyses reveal that women's SHRs are substantially higher than those for men. In addition, it is found that trends in LVRs over time are significantly different for men and women, exhibiting a cyclical pattern in the case of men and a linear pattern in the case of women. Implications of these findings for the integrated model and for future research are discussed.

A New Statistical Analysis of Capital Punishment Incorporating U.S. Postmoratorium Data

Objective. This article reports on a basic regression analysis of the deterrence hypothesis incorporating U.S. data that has accumulated since the resumption of capital punishment in 1977. Methods. The cross‐sectional approach employs data on state homicide rates and estimated execution rates between 1976 and 1997 across 50 states and the District of Columbia. The time series approach employs annual data on the U.S. national homicide rate and estimated national execution rate between 1930 and 1997. Results. Using state data, statistically weak support is found for the deterrence hypothesis. Using national time series data, considerably stronger statistical support is found for the deterrence hypothesis. It is also shown that the same time series regression using data from 1930 to 1976 does not support the deterrence hypothesis, thus showing the probative value of the more recent data. Conclusions. Statistical data from the postmoratorium period are likely to be useful in evaluating the deterrence hypothesis, and therefore social scientists should be carefully examining this evidence.

Climatic data and national suicide and homicide rates.

Both suicide and homicide rates (per 100,000 population) were higher in nations with greater rainfall. Suicide rates were higher in the more northern nations while homicide rates were higher in the nations with more elevated terrain.

Siblicide

This study presents a first look at the phenomenon of siblicide on a national level using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports and the Supplementary Homicide Reports. Five hundred and fourteen (514) single victim cases between 1993 and 1995 were examined. Contrary to what one might expect, siblicide was more common in early to middle adulthood as opposed to adolescence. Results indicated a stable trend in the frequency of siblicide at approximately 1.0% of the national homicide rate over a 12-year period. Specific variables addressed included age, gender, type of weapon, race/ethnicity, offender-victim relationship, and the geographical distribution of siblicide cases.

Gender, gun control, suicide and homicide in Canada

Abstract An article recently published in the Archives of Suicide Research (Leenaars & Lester, 1996, 2, 223-234) concerning the impact of the 1977 Canadian gun control legislation on the national gender-specific rates of suicide and homicide concluded that “… the bill had a preventative effect only on female suicide and homicide without displacement. There may have been compensatory use in other methods for males in both types of lethal violence” (Abstract). The article states that “the passage of C-51 seems to have a more beneficial impact on female victims than on male victims… Males appear to be less influenced by gun restrictions… Displacement, especially in males in suicide - and homicide - may impede efforts to prevent violence” (1996: 229-232).1 Based on a re-analysis of the data which they present, we must disagree with these statements.

Gender, gun control, suicide and homicide in Canada

An article recently published in the Archives of Suicide Research (Leenaars & Lester, 1996, 2, 223-234) concerning the impact of the 1977 Canadian gun control legislation on the national gender-specific rates of suicide and homicide concluded that “… the bill had a preventative effect only on female suicide and homicide without displacement. There may have been compensatory use in other methods for males in both types of lethal violence” (). The article states that “the passage of C-51 seems to have a more beneficial impact on female victims than on male victims… Males appear to be less influenced by gun restrictions… Displacement, especially in males in suicide - and homicide - may impede efforts to prevent violence” (1996: 229-232).1 Based on a re-analysis of the data which they present, we must disagree with these statements.

Political Restraint of the Market and Levels of Criminal Homicide: A Cross-National Application of Institutional-Anomie Theory

This article examines the effects on national homicide rates of political efforts to insulate personal well-being from market forces. Drawing upon recent work by EspingAndersen and the institutional-anomie theory of crime, we hypothesize that levels of homicide will vary inversely with the of labor. We develop a measure of decommodification based on levels and patterns of welfare expenditures and include this measure in a multivariate, cross-national analysis of homicide rates. The results support our hypothesis and lend credibility to the institutional-anomie perspective. The degree of decommodification is negatively related to homicide rates, net of controls for other characteristics of nations. Interest in explaining differences among nations in rates of crime and violence is as old as the sociology of crime itself. The quantitative measurement of these differences by the nineteenth-century moral statisticians Quetelet and Guerry marks the beginning of scientific criminological inquiry (Beirne 1993). Marx also refers to national crime data in the course of developing his critique of the inherent flaws of capitalism. There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system, Marx (1859) writes, which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases in crimes even more rapidly

The Role of Firearms in Violence "Scripts": The Dynamics of Gun Events among Adolescent Males

In recent years, the use and deadly consequences of gun violence among adolescents has reached epidemic proportions. At a time when national homicide rates are declining, the increasing rates of firearm deaths among teenagers is especially alarming. Deaths of adolescents due to firearm injuries are disproportionately concentrated among nonwhites, and especially among African-American teenagers and young adults. Only in times of civil war have there been higher within-group homicide rates in the United States. There appears to be a process of self-annihilation among male African-American teens in inner cities that is unprecedented in American history. Unfortunately, few studies have examined these sharp increases in gun fatalities among young males.

Age Structure, Socio-Political Institutions, and National Homicide Rates

Both the high propensity of young people to commit homicide and the social and financial problems faced by large cohorts during their youth suggest that increases in the proportion of the population at ages 15-29 contribute to higher national homicide rates. Although confirmed by time-series studies of the United States, the expected macro-level relationship does not emerge in cross-national studies of other high-income nations. We argue that the diverse results stem from the varied development of national institutions for collective social protection across high-income nations which mitigate the impact of changes in the percentage of young people on homicide. Results from pooled cross-sectional time-series analyses for eighteen countries and 36 years support the hypothesis: national context, as measured by a scale of collectivism, reduces the otherwise positive effects of the percentage youth on homicide. The findings suggest the need for theories to integrate demographic, political, and criminological perspectives in understanding social diversity among otherwise economically similar high-income democratic nations. Language: en

National differences for thirty-seven nations in extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and economic, demographic and other correlates

National mean scores for extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism were obtained for a large sample of nations together with national means for the work ethic and competitiveness. These data were intercorrelated with additional variables including per capita incomes and national prevalence rates of suicide, homicide and alcoholism. The results showed a number of significant relationships. Factor analysis revealed the presence of three factors which were interpreted as extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. The contribution of questionnaire data and demographic indices as methods for measuring national differences in personality is discussed.

The epidemiology of homicide-suicide (dyadic death)

The national and international rates of homicide and homicide-suicide (dyadic death) have been studied by examination of the available literature. The rates of homicide-suicide episodes between different countries showed considerable variation, though not as great as overall homicide rates. Despite the variation the features of the episodes were similar, with a man usually killing his spouse and/or children with a firearm. The commonest motive for killing is jealousy and/or revenge, often as the result of a breakdown in the spousal relationship.

National character, suicide and homicide

Measures of achievement, competitiveness and occupational preference obtained from samples of college students in 30 nations were associated with national rates of suicide and homicide. Suicide rates were lower and homicide rates higher in societies whose students value achievement, competitiveness and business more. The implications of these results were discussed.

The Social Causes of American Indian Homicide as Revealed by the Life Experiences of Thirty Offenders

OF ALL THE MINORITIES in the United States, according to government statistics on income, employment, and housing, the American Indian is the poorest of the poor. Life in their social world can be brutal, often cut short by violent death. Homicide represents this violent death in an extreme form. A recent analysis of racial/ethnic homicide rates revealed that although the black population's national homicide rate (33 per 100,000 population) was much higher than both whites (4.6 per 100,000 population) and American Indians (9.6 per 100,000 population), the American Indian rate was double that of whites (Bachman 1991). Further, when reservation county rates are examined, the severity of the problem is illuminated. Some counties maintain American Indian homicide rates close to or more

Economic Discrimination and Societal Homicide Rates: Further Evidence on the Cost of Inequality

This research examines the effects of economic discrimination against social groups on national rates of homicide....I hypothesize that nations with intense and pervasive discrimination will exhibit comparatively high levels of homicide and that the effects of discrimination will exceed those of income inequality. Regression analyses using both INTERPOL and World Health Organization homicide data support both hypotheses. Indicators of economic discrimination against social groups are significantly and positively related to homicide rates despite fairly extensive controls for other theoretically relevant national characteristics....These results suggest that the structuring of economic inequality on the basis of ascribed characteristics is a particularly important source of lethal violence in contemporary societies. (EXCERPT)

National suicide and homicide rates: Correlates versus predictors

The present study explored correlates of national suicide and homicide rates in a sample of industrialized nations. A large set of social variables was factor-analyzed and the factors were correlated with both suicide and homicide rates and with changes in these rates. Different social variables were found to correlate with rates of suicide than with rates of homicide, and different variables correlated with current rates of personal violence than with changes in these rates.

National homicide ans suicide rates as a function of political stability.

National homicide ans suicide rates as a function of political stability.

Aggression: A Way of Life for the Qolla

The meanest people in the world are probably the Qolla, an Andean subculture inhabiting the area around Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia. Anthropological literature described the members of this group as the meanest and most unlikable people on earth -the classic example of an extreme personality type dominated by excessive hostility and aggressiveness. In recent years the Qolla have been called everything from anxious and fearful to dishonest and vindictive. But their rancor is hardly a recent discovery; it is almost legendary. In the 16th century a Mercedarian friar, Padre Martin de Murua, described the Qolla as irrational, cruel, uncivilized, stupid and dull. Is this stereotype realistic or is it overstated? Ethnographer Ralph Bolton of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., spent five years living among the He does not subscribe to every negative characteristic attributed to them but he concludes that the Qolla, at a minimum, are a hostile and aggressive people. Local authorities in the village of Incawatana, where Bolton stayed, keep records of all significant disputes, carefully noting all details of the complaints brought before them. Bolton selected and recorded the activities that were strictly aggressive-those whose goals were the injury of some person or object. The major complaint category in this conflict file is fights and injuries. Violent encounters are extremely commonplace. The second most common category of aggressive behavior is insults. The Qolla are prone to swaggering, especially when inebriated. At such times they frequently indulge in monologues describing their own ferocity while laughing at the puniness of their enemies. Gesticulating wildly in the air, a Qolla man will shout, I am a man, dammit! You, you are nothing but a dog, an ass, excrement! Stealing (with the intent to injure) ranks just below insulting in frequency, followed by damage to crops, failure to pay debts or fulfill contracts and threats against a person or property. Rape, arson, slander and land ownership disputes are less prominent in Incawatana and are considered more serious. But the most serious and most strongly disapproved behavior is murder. In the 25-year period since 1945, there were 11 murders among 800 residents-a rate of 55 homicides per year per 100,000 population. The same rate for the United States would amount to 115,500 murders a year. Not one country for which data are available, says Bolton, has a rate as high as the Qolla. National homicide rates range from 0.3 to 34 per 100,000 population in Colombia. More than 50 percent of all Incawatana adults have had some form of participation in the events surrounding at least one homicide. Bolton calls this rate surprisingly high for a people who do not have an ethic that extols violence or aggressiveness. The Qolla moral code actually demands of them charity, compassion and cooperation with all men. During interviews with the Qolla, Bolton found that they rarely perceived the discrepancy between their own conduct and the conduct called for by the code. When asked why people kill one another, slaughter each other's animals, burn their crops, fight with them, etc., they insisted: Such behavior is not natural. A rational person could not do things like that. No matter what the Qolla think, Bolton's case file shows that they are an extremely hostile group. Several hypotheses have been proposed in the past to explain their aggressiveness. The domination hypothesis of Weston LaBarre of Duke University suggests that