Where poverty matters: examining the cross-national relationship between Eeconomic deprivation and homicide

Recent research on the role of economic deprivation in explaining cross-national homicide rates is inconsistent. These inconsistencies may be attributed to the use of samples composed primarily of developed countries, and the implicit assumption that the impact of deprivation is constant throughout...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Rennó Santos, Mateus (Author) ; Testa, Alexander (Author) ; Weiss, Douglas B. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2018, Volume: 58, Issue: 2, Pages: 372-393
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Keywords:
Homicide
Economic deprivation
Correlates of homicide
Cross-national criminology
Quantile regression
Tötungsdelikte
Ökonomische Deprivation
Korrelationsanalyse
Ländervergleich
Länderübergreifende Studie
Description
Summary:Recent research on the role of economic deprivation in explaining cross-national homicide rates is inconsistent. These inconsistencies may be attributed to the use of samples composed primarily of developed countries, and the implicit assumption that the impact of deprivation is constant throughout the homicide distribution. The current study challenges this assumption and suggests a dynamic relationship between deprivation and homicide. Using a broad sample of 148 countries this work applies quantile regression to examine whether inequality and poverty have consistent impacts across the entire homicide distribution. Results indicate that inequality and homicide have a universal positive relationship. In contrast, poverty is only related to homicide in countries with lower homicide rates. Findings are discussed within the context of strain theory.
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azx013