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Urban Disadvantage and Types of Race-Specific Homicide: Assessing the Diversity in Family Structures in the Urban Context

NCJ Number
196199
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 39 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 277-303
Author(s)
Karen F. Parker; Tracy Johns
Date Published
August 2002
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This study examined the linkage between urban disadvantage and types of race-specific homicide while taking into account the presence of different family structures in urban areas that were separate from family disruption.
Abstract
No study has examined the potential social control mechanisms found in different family types when exploring the relationship between economic dislocation, family disruption, and urban violence. The aim of this study was to incorporate the race-relations literature on the diversity of family types into the study of urban violence. Race-relations literature depicts the family as multifaceted. Increasing joblessness among Black men is the single greatest factor influencing the decline in marriages. As families have responded to the changing economic and political climate of urban areas, they have taken on multiple forms, including married couples without children, non-married families, single parents, and female-headed households. Previous studies on the relationship between urban disadvantage and racially disaggregated homicide rates that incorporate family constructs show that the focus has been on family disruption, such as divorce. The data included 168 large United States (U.S.) cities with populations of 100,000 persons or more in 1990. The two primary data sources were the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s population statistics for 1990. Results show that family constructs contributed differently to race- and relationship-specific homicide events. Evidence was provided that diversity in families should not be viewed as disruptive in the literature because it was not necessarily conducive to Black urban violence. Findings suggest that research needs to include measures of family structure that expand beyond those traditionally offered in studies of urban violence. Researchers may be required to break from the standard practice of identifying female-headed households and non-married families as non-intact and disruptive aspects of the urban environment. 5 tables, 2 appendixes, 6 notes, 72 references