A Methodological Addition to the Cross‐national Empirical Literature on Social Structure and Homicide: A First Test of the Poverty‐homicide Thesis*

Abstract

Dozens of cross‐national studies of homicide have been published in the last three decades. Although nearly all these studies test for an association between inequality and homicide, no studies test for a poverty—homicide association. This absence is disconcerting given that poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of area homicide rates in the abundant empirical literature on social structure and homicide in the United States. Using a sample that coincides closely with similar recent studies, applying a proxy for poverty (infant mortality) that is commonly employed in noncriminological cross‐national research, and controlling for several common covariates (including inequality), this study provides the first test of the poverty—homicide hypothesis at the cross‐national level. The results reveal a positive and significant association between a nation's level of poverty and its homicide rate. The findings also suggest that we may need to reassess the strong conclusions about an inequality—homicide association drawn from prior studies, as this relationship disappears when poverty is included in the model.

Structural correlates of female homicide: A cross-national analysis

“…Literature on the feminization of poverty demonstrates that women may be much more greatly impacted by poverty than men (for a review of this literature see Bianchi, 1999), and using overall poverty measures would not capture these gender differences. Recent research has made important strides in empirical assessment of the poverty-homicide relationship (Pridemore, 2008), but sex-specific measures of poverty are not yet available for a large number of countries.…”

Spatial patterns of homicide and political legitimacy in Europe*

“…Sampson & Lauritsen, 1994) as well as cross-nationally (Messner & Rosenfeld, 1999;Nivette, 2011;Pridemore, 2008Pridemore, , 2011Pridemore & Trent, 2010) has shown that poverty is a robust predictor of area crime. These findings place poverty as an essential component for the current models.…”

“…Spatial analyses are useful when a social phenomenon is thought to grow nonrandomly and in a nonlinear fashion, and there is evidence to believe this is the case for homicide (Tita & Radil, 2010). For instance, we know by a wealth of American and international literature that homicide, and more generally violence, is not distributed evenly throughout the population and tends to cluster in disadvantaged, usually urban, space (Land, McCall, & Cohen, 1990;McCall, Land, & Parker, 2010;Pratt & Cullen, 2005;Pridemore, 2008;Pridemore & Trent, 2010).…”

“…These findings place poverty as an essential component for the current models. Pridemore (2008Pridemore ( , 2011, following precedent in other disciplines, has advocated the use of infant mortality rates over income-based indicators based on the argument that the former is more conceptually encompassing of notions of social inclusion and well-being than the latter. Thus, the infant mortality rate, measured by the number of deaths per 1000 births, was used here as a proxy to control for levels of poverty.…”

Influence of Socio-Cultural Factors on Homicide: The Nigeria Case Study

“…Urbanization: Rural-urban migration and high unemployment rates and attendant poverty with income inequality [25]. Use of psychoactive substances: This is quite common in the two cities.…”