| NCJ Number: |
204613  |
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| Title: |
Structural Inequality and Homicide: An Assessment of the Black-White Gap in Killings |
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| Journal: |
Criminology Volume:41 Issue:3 Dated:August 2003 Pages:645-672 |
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| Author(s): |
Maria B. Velez; Lauren J. Krivo; Ruth D. Peterson |
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| Editor(s): |
Robert J. Bursik Jr. |
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| Date Published: |
August 2003 |
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| Annotation: |
This paper explores the extent to which the racial gap in homicide is rooted in the differences in social and economic circumstances of Whites and Blacks, focusing specifically on large central cities in the United States for 1990. |
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| Abstract: |
Since the rates of lethal violence offending among Blacks have ranged from 6.2 to 9.5 times that for Whites over the past two decades, researchers have focused considerable attention on understanding the sources of racial inequality in homicide. By directly modeling the racial gap in homicide offending for large central cities in the United States for 1990, this paper examines the relationship between race and violent crime. The paper also attempts to assess what types of racial inequality matter for differences in criminal violence, focusing on the independent roles of gaps in resources and gaps in disadvantage. To ensure a sufficient number of Blacks for constructing reliable race-specific rates used to compute gap measures, Metropolitan Statistical Areas central cities with a minimum population of 100,000 and a Black population of at least 5,000 in 1990 were utilized. The study sample consisted of 126 areas. The study demonstrated that racial differences in the levels of key structural characteristics are important for understanding the Black-White gap in violent crime, as well as that while measures of resources are significant, indicators of disadvantage are not. The study shows that the racial homicide differential is better explained by the greater resources that exist among Whites than by the higher levels of disadvantage that exist among Blacks. It is concluded that inferences from race-specific models overstate the degree to which Black and White crime stems from different sources. It became apparent that levels of Black and White killing diverge so much because these two groups are positioned in such dramatically different ways with respect to core factors reflecting traditional theories of crime. These results suggest that recent scholars are correct to encourage conceptualizing disadvantages and resources as distinct constructs rather than simple opposite ends of the same concept. From this analysis the racial gap in homicide stems in part from the excesses in White resources that function to maintain much lower levels of White than Black lethal violence. Researchers should begin to direct attention away from a near exclusive focus on variation in levels of disadvantages as sources of criminal violence. References |
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| Main Term(s): |
Black/White Crime Comparisons |
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| Index Term(s): |
Crime patterns; Economic influences; Homicide; Race-crime relationships; Racial discrimination; Social conditions; Urban area studies; Violence causes |
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| Grant Number: |
SBR-9513040 |
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| Sponsoring Agency: |
National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR)
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 |
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| Page Count: |
28 |
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| Format: |
Article |
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| Type: |
Report (Study/Research) |
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| Language: |
English |
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| Country: |
United States of America |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=204613 |
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