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Cultural and Economic Sources of Homicide in the United States

Bibliographic Data

ID2276480
AuthorsLarry Baron (0000-0003-2784-2163, University of California, Los Angeles), M A Straus (0000-0003-4200-589X, University of New Hampshire at Manchester), Murray A Strau (0000-0002-0106-7755)
Year1988
Volume29
Issue3
Pages371-390
Publication date1988-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1533-8525.1988.tb01259.x
OpenAlexW2008519435
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited41

Are high rates of homicide better explained by cultural or economic factors? Some research suggests that a regional culture of violence underlies high rates of homicide, whereas other research suggests that poverty or economic inequality increases the likelihood of homicide. A major limitation of this body of research has been the failure of researchers to include an indicator of cultural support for violence that is analytically separate from measures of southern region. In this article, a 12-item Legitimate Violence Index (LVX) is introduced that measures cultural support for violence. Using the 50 states as the units of analysis, hypotheses derived from cultural and economic theories of homicide are investigated using multiple regression. Several additional variables are included in the analysis to control for spurious relationships. The results show that legitimate violence, poverty, and economic inequality are significantly associated with state-to-state differences in the incidence of homicide

Criminology · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Environmental health · Homicide · Inequality · Poison control · Poverty · Sociology · Spurious relationship · State (computer science) · Statistics · Suicide prevention · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Mathematics · Medicine · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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Unique citing works36
Citations per year0,92
Citation span1987 - 2025 (39)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 23
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