White Homicide Research Articles

Regional variation in the effect of structural factors on homicide in rural areas

A significant literature has evolved in the last 40 years investigating regional variation in lethal violence, with most studies focusing on Southern homicide rates. One question posed by this research involves the effect of structural conditions on violence in the context of a regional culture of violence. We take a unique approach to this problem by detailing two distinct conceptual processes, amplification and attenuation of structural influences on violence. We then investigate regional variations in the effects of resource deprivation on White homicide in rural areas—a context in which the Southern culture of violence should be most prominent. The results of our county-level analyses of census and homicide data around the year 2000 reveal that White homicide rates are higher in Confederate South states and that resource deprivation has a positive association with White homicide. The effect of resource deprivation also accounts for the Confederate South effect, and an interaction model indicates that the effect of this variable is significantly stronger in the non-South as predicted by the attenuation argument. Overall, these results suggest that both structural and cultural forces contribute to rural White homicide rates.

Race, Ethnicity and the Risk of Homicide Victimization in the United States

Linked data from the National Health Interview Surveys and Multiple Causes of Death Use Files are used to estimate the individual level effects of race and ethnicity, and relevant controls on homicide mortality. African American and Hispanic race/ethnicity are found to be leading factors in homicide victimization. Following some previous work this research also finds that the gap between white and minority homicide victimization is attenuated but not explained by SES, contextual and marital status variables. It is hypothesized that the experience and perception of racism, and the frustration, anger and resentment that result produce an ideological climate that sustains high levels of violence among minority members beyond what concentration of disadvantage variables predict.

A Dynamic Model of Racial Competition, Racial Inequality, and Interracial Violence

Race relations and stratification literatures offer explicit expectations concerning interracial conflict. Causal arguments derived from these perspectives are examined in this study to explore their ability to explain interracial violence above and beyond criminological perspectives of economic deprivation and racial inequality. The vast majority of previous aggregate-level studies on violence are cross-sectional, ignoring the importance of a dynamic model that incorporates the influence of changing structural conditions in urban areas on interracial violence. We explore theories that incorporate dynamic explanations for the influence of structural factors related to crime as well as racial conflict and employ a methodological approach that models the change in structural conditions for rare events such as interracial homicide. We find that changes between 1980 and 1990 in urban Black and Hispanic population composition, racial competition and racial inequality differentially explain the variation in White and Black interracial homicide offending.

Investigating the Connections Between Race, Illicit Drug Markets, and Lethal Violence, 1984-1997

Many scholars have speculated that the dramatic rise of homicide rates in the late 1980s and their subsequent decline in the 1990s was driven by the expansion and contraction of illegal drug markets and/or law enforcement attempts to regulate these markets. However, the empirical evidence to this end is limited in important ways. This analysis extends prior research and provides evidence of the following: (1) Change in drug market indicators are positively associated with change in both Black and White homicide rates in large U.S. cities between 1984 and 1997. (2) This relationship is substantially stronger for Blacks than for Whites. (3) The socioeconomic moderators of the drug-market/violence link vary by race, with racial inequality being especially important for Blacks and resource deprivation being especially important for Whites. The main implications of the analysis are that the drug-market/ lethal violence connection is much more complex than previously thought, and that simplistic theoretical accounts of the drug market-violence nexus need additional development.

Regional Variations in Lethal and Nonlethal Assaults

Data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System are used to evaluate aspects of recent “culture of violence” theories. The results call into question the existence of a pervasive White code of honor in Southern cities. The situation is less clear for some Southern counties. Black homicide offender rates for cities with populations of more than 50,000, North and South, are much higher when compared with White homicide offender rates for the same cities. Although these high Black offender rates do not, in themselves, provide support for the existence of a widespread “Black code of the streets,” they do suggest that the factors and situations that produce these rates are not uniquely Southern. At a minimum, this examination of race-specific violent offender rates for cities and the areas outside those cities indicates the limitations of a focus on regional differences in overall state-level rates of victimization.

White, Black, and Latino Homicide Rates: Why the Difference?

The racial homicide differential in the United States is extraordinarily large, with minorities exhibiting much higher homicide rates than non-Latino whites. Several sociological explanations for crime suggest that if whites were subjected to the same structural pressures as minorities, white homicide rates would approach levels currently experienced among minorities. Based on 1990 data for 129 U.S. metropolitan areas, this study quantifies the extent to which differences in structural characteristics among the non-Latino white, non-Latino black, and Latino populations contribute to the homicide differential. The analysis reveals that all of the white-Latino homicide differential and about half of the white-black homicide gap could be reduced if the characteristics of minorities were improved to levels currently exhibited by whites.

How the West Was One: Explaining the Similarities in Race-Specific Homicide Rates in the West and South

This research investigates the impact of structural conditions on- rates of black and white homicide for different regions of the U.S. Particular attention is given to the claim that significant changes have occurred in regional patterns of homicide, shifting attention awayffrom the South and toward the western region. Based on race-specific homicide rates for U.S. cities in 1990, our research provides statistical evidence of similarities in mean race-specific homicide ratesfor the southern and western regions. hile thisfinding suggests greater comparability, further exploration reveals that the similarities in regional homicide rates cannot be attributed to like circumstances or conditions once methodological pursuits of invariant structural covariates in research prevail. Given the presence of unique structural disadvantages in each of these regions, we offer explanationsfor the differences in structural and culturalforces that contribute to the race-specific homicide rates.

Concentrated Poverty, Race, and Homicide

Research on the link between levels of poverty and homicide in urban areas has persistently reported the existence of a relationship for whites but not for blacks. This is despite the fact that most analysts expect that the higher levels of urban black homicide are due in part to the higher levels of urban black poverty. The present research introduces a more meaningful, spatially based measure of concentrated poverty and argues that the effect of concentrated poverty on homicide rates should be the same for both racial groups. The hypotheses are tested with race-disaggregated data for a sample of central cities circa 1990. The results suggest that, when poverty is measured as a linear spatially based phenomenon, in is a more important determinat of race-specific homicide rates than overall city levels of disadvantage and that the concentration of poverty increases both black and white homicide rather equally.

Racial segregation, the concentration of disadvantage, and black and white homicide victimization

Discriminatory housing market practices have created and reinforced patterns of racial residential segregation throughout the United States. Such segregation has racist consequences too. Residential segregation increases the concentration of disadvantage for blacks but not whites, creating African-American residential environments that heighten social problems including violence within the black population. At the same time, segregation protects white residential environments from these dire consequences. This hypothesized racially inequitable process is tested for one important type of violence—homicide. We examine race-specific models of lethal violence that distinguish residential segregation from the concentration of disadvantage within racial groups. Data are from the Censuses of Population and Federal Bureau of Investigation's homicide incidence files for U.S. large central cities for 1980 and 1990. Our perspective finds support in the empirical analyses. Segregation has an important effect on black but not white killings, with the impact of segregation on African-American homicides explained by concentrated disadvantage.

Industrial Restructuring and Violence: The Link between Entry-Level Jobs, Economic Deprivation, and Black and White Homicide

Although low-skill, entry-level employment has facilitated the social mobility of central city populations, evidence confirms that these once plentiful jobs are disappearing. This shift in the industrial structure of central cities has been especially detrimental to the economic and social well-being of low-skill city residents and may be linked to the rates of violence in urban communities. Using racially disaggregated data from the census and the Uniform Crime Reports for central cities in 1970 and 1990, we examine the direct and indirect relationship between the industrial structure of central cities and the rates of homicide. Thefindings reveal that a decline in the access to low-skilljobs increases violence indirectly byfirst increasing economic deprivation. We model these relationships for racially disaggregated populations andfind that the effects are similarfor blacks and whites. The analysis supports a macro-social link between violence and urban

Industrial Restructuring and Violence: The Link between Entry-Level Jobs, Economic Deprivation, and Black and White Homicide

Industrial Restructuring and Violence: The Link between Entry-Level Jobs, Economic Deprivation, and Black and White Homicide

Adding another Piece to the Inequality-Homicide Puzzle

Criminologists have produced mounting evidence that economic deprivation, social disorganization, and racial inequality are associated with homicide rates. Our research agenda incorporates both criminological and structural inequality theories into the study of the influence of structural covariates on race-specific homicide rates. We examine the effects of economic deprivation, labor market competition, racial segregation, and racial inequality on interracial and intraracial homicide rates for a sample of U.S. cities in 1980. The results of principal components and multiple regression analyses suggest that economic deprivation affects the intraracial homicide rates for Whites and Blacks, as well as the rates of White interracial homicide offending. Racial segregation and racial inequality were found to contribute significantly to the Black interracial homicide rate. In addition, we find that labor market competition affects the rates of White and Black interracial homicide. The contribution of structural theories for studies of homicide and the implications of these findings are discussed.

Native American Suicide and Homicide Rates: Are They Associated with White Suicide and Homicide Rates?

In 1980, suicide and homicide rates for Native Americans by state (48 continental states) were not associated with the suicide and homicide rates for white adults.

Exposure to television as a risk factor for violence.

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study by Centerwall was to evaluate television as a risk factor for violence by examining homicide rates in South Africa, Canada and United States. METHODOLOGY: The author followed a quasi-experimental design in which homicide rates in Canada and United States were compared retrospectively with those of South Africa. From an epidemiological orientation, author sought to determine effect of an intervention, introduction of television, on homicide rates by using as a control group a population which was not subjected to intervention. In Canada and United States television was introduced in 1945 while in South Africa, television was not introduced until 1974. South Africa was selected as control population since it did not receive intervention, television, until almost thirty years after Canada and United States. The author compared only homicide rates of white populations of each country. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: The author found that between 1945 and 1974 annual incidence of white homicide deaths in United States and Canada increased 93 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively. In United States, there were 3.0 homicides per 100,000 whites in 1945 compared with 5.8 homicides per 100,000 in 1974. In Canada, there were 1.3 homicides per 100,000 in 1945 compared with 2.5 homicides per 100,000 whites in 1974. The incidence of white homicide deaths in South Africa during this same time period decreased by 7 per cent; there were 2.7 homicides per 100,000 whites in 1943-1948 compared with 2.5 homicides per 100,000 in 1974. Since violence is a multifactor phenomenon involving many variables, author suggested that attained rate of violence reflects exposure to television, particular country's baseline rate of violence, as well as effect of changes in other risk factors, such as socioeconomic conditions. The author further argued that this type of population intervention study is free of ecological fallacy. The ecological fallacy occurs when investigator infers that unobserved effect of one variable on another at level is same as observed effect at group level. In present study, author suggested that issue of ecological fallacy is rendered moot insofar as the link between risk factor and outcome variable has already been established at level of individual (p. 646). Each white South African was equally without television in same way as each white Canadian and American was with television between 1945 and 1974. The author also acknowledged that in conducting this type of comparative study there are rough edges insofar as prior to 1975 there could have been South African whites who were exposed to television outside of South Africa. Specification bias was reduced by choosing a control population, South Africa, with a similar social and historical background to Canada and United States. The author examined potentially confounding third variables, but found none adequately explained observed homicide trends. Potential confounding third variables were controlled through use of multiple control groups. However, author was unable to control for effect of local inaccessible confounders since there were no other television-free countries similar to South Africa. The author found that two major etiologic hypotheses were substantiated by data. One hypothesis stated that exposure to television is followed by an increase in rates of violence. Another hypothesis stated that timing of introduction of television predicts timing of subsequent increase in rates of violence. In conclusion, author calculated that exposure to television is etiologically related to about one half of homicides committed in United States. EVALUATION: The author presents an interesting comparison of homicide rates in United States, Canada and South Africa as a function of each countries' relative exposure to television. However, task of explaining an entire country's rate of homicide by exposure to television alone seems problematic for several reasons. The author does not convincingly justify exclusion of effects from other confounding variables from relationship. For example, relative effects of exposure to other mediums in each country is not discussed. Finally, author assumes that backgrounds of all three countries are comparable and that there was similar television programming both in Canada and United States during period studied. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by Center for Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of University of Colorado) N1 - Call Number: F-433, AB-433 KW - South Africa KW - Canada KW - US Foreign Comparison KW - Countries Other Than USA KW - Homicide Rates KW - Television Viewing KW - Television Violence KW - Comparative Analysis KW - Violence Risk Factors KW - Violence Causes KW - Media Violence Effects KW - Caucasian Adult KW - Caucasian Victim KW - Adult Victim KW - Cross National Comparison KW - Cross National Differences KW - 1940s KW - 1950s KW - 1960s KW - 1970s

Black and White Homicide Differentials

Rates of homicide among blacks in the United States have been consistently higher than those of white Americans and of other American nonwhites. Subculture of violence theory has been the most widely accepted explanation for these differences. In this article, I argue that subculture theory ignores or underemphasizes a variety of historical-structural, situational, and economic factors that might explain high rates of black homicide. Seldom examined is the behavior of the law. Three theoretical propositions are offered as guides for future research. These propositions suggest that (1) the historical devaluing of black life, (2) official responses of the criminal justice system to prehomicide behavior among blacks, and (3) the direct effects of economic deprivation are important causal factors.

The Ecological Structure of Negro Homicide

State rates of Negro American homicide vary sharply across the nation. An ecological analysis of these differences reveals two principal correlates: homicidal culture (as measured by the white homicide rates of the native states of Negroes) and the percentage of non-white makes born out of state. Two orthogonal patterns of high Negro homicide rates emerge: one involves high homocidal culture with rapid social change and is centered in fringe southern states; the other involves medium homicidal culture with high non-white in-migration and is centered in the Midwest. These findings are consistent with a variety of historical, survey, and crime data on homicidal culture and migration.