Latent Trajectories of Cross-National Homicide Trends: Structural Characteristics of Underlying Groups

Abstract

Relative to studies of U.S. homicide trends, few have investigated cross-national trends. We explore hidden heterogeneity across a sample of 82 nations between 1980 and 2010, and examine (a) what distinct latent trajectories are represented among these nations? and (b) what structural factors characterize these latent trajectory groups? World Health Organization mortality data were used for the trajectory analyses wherein three distinct groups were identified. Structural characteristics of each group are compared to determine which factors account for their trajectories. Characteristics that predicted group placement include a development index, divorced males, female labor force participation, and Latin American region.

Homicide Rates and the Multiple Dimensions of Urbanization: A Longitudinal, Cross-National Analysis

“…As a predictor of homicide rates, we centered our analysis on urbanization, while controlling for other concepts that are theoretically related to homicide rates in the criminological literature, including age structure, economic productivity, labor conditions, educational attainment, and inequality [6,9,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. We note that many of the variables presumed to influence homicide rates cross-nationally are also the same variables tested in cross-national studies by sustainability scholars, especially urbanization.…”

“…The World Development Indicators are regularly used by quantitative scholars studying the many dimensions of development [3,11,20,[30][31][32][33]38,39]. Nevertheless, in the World Bank data, there are many countries that do not have complete longitudinal coverage for the variables being incorporated into the analysis.…”

National Culture on the Cross‐National Variation of Homicide: An Empirical Application of the Inglehart–Welzel Cultural Map

“…In addition to dividing the world by their national religious affiliation, geographic regional difference is also explored, or at least controlled for, in several cross-national homicide studies (e.g., Neapolitan 1994;Pridemore 2002Pridemore , 2008Tuttle et al 2018). Latin American and East Asian countries were consistently identified as the outliers when it comes to their homicide rates.…”

“…Although limited compared to structural explanations, extant research has explored various aspects of culture such as religiosity (Corcoran et al 2018; Fernquist 2002; Lederman et al 2002), religious cosmology (Jensen 2006), national religious affiliation (Chon 2017), regional difference (Neapolitan 1994; Pridemore 2002; Tuttle et al 2018), collectivism (Fernquist 2002; Pampel and Gartner 1995), decommodification and material success goals (Altheimer 2008; Hövermann and Messner 2019; Jensen 2002), and culture of honor (Altheimer 2013; Corcoran and Stark 2018) on cross‐national homicide rates. However, as we will demonstrate in the next section, there remain many conceptual as well as methodological gaps in the literature on culture and cross‐national homicide.…”

A produção social e política dos homicídios: uma análise macrossocial da trajetória das taxas de homicídios em Santa Catarina (1992 a 2017)

“…Também entrava no campo a atribuição de outras variáveis regionais e situacionais, como o tamanho das cidades e o acesso às armas de fogo. TSELONI, 2006;EISNER, 2013;PINKER, 2012;TONRY, 2014;TSELONI et al, 2010;TUTTLE;WEISS et al, 2016). (NAGIN, 1999(NAGIN, , 2005TREMBLAY, 2005), que consiste em identificar grupos de trajetórias ao longo do tempo.…”