NCJ Number
215966
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 231-252
Date Published
November 2006
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study examined and modeled possible links between economic inequality and homicide among 33 of the 44 nation-states that participated in the third wave of the World Values Survey.
Abstract
Although the study failed to find an empirical link between economic inequality and cross-national homicide rates, it did note a conditional relationship between a prevalent public belief that the political and economic order was illegitimate, i.e., not responsive to the will or the needs of the people in a balanced way, and homicide rates. This effect varied across levels of societal development. Measures of perceived economic and political illegitimacy positively affected homicide rates in modern nations, but had no impact in less developed nations. This suggests that the influence of economic inequality on homicide might have more to do with the impact of economic inequality on the socioeconomic conditions in which a large segment of a population lives rather than perceptions of illegitimacy. The negative influence of the unequal distribution of economic resources and its negative influence on the daily living of people may be the criminogenic factors. The authors encourage macro criminologists to continue to examine the intervening factors that link macrostructural conditions to criminal outcomes. The World Values Survey (1995-97) was the source of attitudinal data for the 33 nations examined. It measured cross-cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs of adult citizens (18 years old and older). The dependent variable, the rate of homicides known to the police per 100,000 persons, was obtained from the sixth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of the Criminal Justice Systems (2002). Independent variables pertained to the extent to which the legitimacy of the economic order could account for the cross-national relationship between economic inequality and homicide. 3 tables and 87 references