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One of the most consistent findings in the cross-national literature is the association between economic inequality and homicide rates. However, recent research has raised doubts concerning causality. To address some of these concerns, I draw on a (modified) version of Coleman's theory-building model to connect societal-level economic inequality and homicide rates through mechanisms operating at the neighbourhood level. The causal pathway operates through three mechanisms. First, greater economic inequality within society corresponds with higher degrees of spatial segregation by income across neighbourhoods. Second, spatial segregation contributes to concentrated disadvantage and less social integration of the lowest economic stratum, described as (reduced) collective efficacy and social isolation. Finally, more tenuous social integration contributes to higher rates of crime due to weakened social control and cultural/social adaptations to social isolation. This integration of the cross-national and neighbourhood literatures provides new avenues for research on the societal inequality/homicide association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, the United States and other wealthy democracies experienced a decline in homicide rates. However, not all nations shared this trend. Despite disparate homicide patterns, researchers usually examine the average effect of correlates on homicide, potentially obscuring the impact of heterogeneity within large samples. The current study addresses this implicit homogeneity assumption by identifying three distinct latent trajectory groups of homicide trends among 77 nations from 1989 to 2010. To examine differences in the correlates of homicide trends, we analyse the impact of demographic and economic influences on homicide rates in separate fixed-effects panel regression analyses for each trajectory group as well as for the overall sample. We find that demographic and economic forces impact homicide rates differently across subsets of nations. Our findings suggest that universal explanations of 1990s cross-national homicide trends are misleading, as the same set of factors influence homicide rates differently across national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus on the institutional control of violent crime has increased over the past few decades, stimulated largely by Messner and Rosenfeld's "institutional anomie theory." A related theory, referred to as "institutional legitimacy theory" in this study, has received considerably less attention. This theory, originating in the social control theoretical tradition, is tested in an analysis of homicide rates (circa 2012) across 108 nations. Overall, institutional legitimacy theory receives support as economic, political, familial, and religious institutional legitimacy assist in reducing homicide rates across societies. Most notably, homicide is positively associated with the size of the shadow economy (the measure of waning economic institutional legitimacy), consistent with the hypothesis that parties lacking institutional redress are more likely to use unilateral violence to resolve grievances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an extension and cross-national test of the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence (SALV). The SALV is an integrated theory of homicide and suicide that hypothesizes a relationship between “socially patterned” sources of frustration and lethal violence. By drawing on the insights of General Strain Theory and Institutional Anomie Theory, this study extends the SALV by assessing the impact of “decommodification” on the lethal violence rate. Partial support is found for this modified version of the SALV, as lagged measures of social expenditures are negatively associated with total lethal violence. The findings of this study suggest that social welfare expenditures in OECD nations protect citizens from lethal violence while austerity measures may contribute to greater rates of violent death. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]