W A Pridemore
Biographic Data
| ID | 9900 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W A Pridemore |
| GIVEN NAMES | W A |
| FAMILY NAME | Pridemore |
| SIGNATURE | PRIDEMORE W A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University Bloomington |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5553-8698 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 563 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Population Sentiments and Violence: A Study of Emotional Temperature and National Homicide Rates, 2006–2019
The growing literature on the structural and cultural covariates of homicide rates contain few studies of the role of citizens' prevailing sentiments. Yet population sentiments and perceptions of daily life tell us something about societies beyond official measures of economic and demographic structure, and studies show perceptions of things like state legitimacy, civic engagement, and consumer sentiment are associated with national crime rates. …
The Association between Anti-cartel Military Intervention and Municipal Homicide Rates in Mexico, 2000–2022
When Prices Rise, So Does Crime: A Time Series Analysis of the Association between Inflation and Crime in Argentina, 1973–2022
Argentina’s robbery rates are among the highest in the world, and for decades the nation has endured consistently high inflation and at times hyperinflation. There is little research on the association between inflation and acquisitive crime in Argentina, but given the widespread negative effects of inflation on other outcomes in Argentina, it is important to know if it is associated with crime. We examined this association. Our unit of analysis …
Market orientation and national homicide rates
We studied the influence of market orientation on national homicide rates. Multiple theoretical traditions equate the development and dominance of markets with higher crime rates. Some traditional sociological theoretical claims, however, suggest market expansion should reduce violence. Elias argued that economic interconnectedness demands stable societies, increased sensitivity to others, and self‐control. Durkheim maintained that greater divisi…
Region-Specific Structural Covariates of Homicide Rates in Latin America: State Legitimacy and Remittances
The goal of this study was to examine region-specific structural covariates of homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). LAC nations possess 8% of the global population but 33% of homicides, yet the region receives limited attention in studies of social structure and violence. Prior literature suggests two separate social forces particularly relevant to the region, state legitimacy and monetary remittances. Theory from multiple fie…
Mano Dura v. Uneasy Peace in El Salvador: Effects of Tough-on-Crime and Gang Truce Policies in the Former Murder Capital of the World
Until recently, El Salvador had one of the world’s highest homicide rates, largely driven by criminal groups. Since 2003, the government attempted to reduce violence through mano dura policies and gang truces. Mano dura involves aggressive enforcement, harsh punishments and authoritarian measures, while truces rely on negotiations between gangs, state actors, and civil society. Analysing nation-month data for 2003–22 with autoregressive integrate…
The future of interpersonal violence research: Steps towards interdisciplinary integration
Interpersonal violence is a high-priority issue for the general public, policymakers, and academics. It is commonly defined as the use of physical force - threatened or actual - with the intent to cause harm or injury (Dahlberg & Krug, 2002 ), and can be contrasted with collective or political forms of violence. Its negative consequences range from immediate effects, such as personal harm and injury, to longer-term consequences for offenders, vic…
Population-Level Alcohol Consumption and Homicide Rates in Latin America: A Fixed Effects Panel Analysis, 1961–2019
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) possesses 8 per cent of the global population but approximately one-third of global homicides. The region also exhibits high per capita alcohol consumption, risky drinking patterns and a heterogeneous mix of beverage preferences. Despite this, LAC violence receives limited attention in the English-language literature and there are no studies of the population-level alcohol-homicide association in the region. …
Not Just Another Test of Institutional Anomie Theory: Assessing Relative Institutional Imbalances
Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) proposes high violent crime rates are due partially to imbalances in societal institutions, specifically the dominance of the economy over non-economic institutions. Tests of IAT have focused largely on the absolute strength of the economy, which ignores the core argument of institutional imbalance and the possibility that institutional preferences may not be additive and limited. If one institution is strong, it…
Perceived Inequality and Cross-National Homicide Rates
Economic inequality is a persistent structural covariate of cross-national homicide rates. The most common criminological explanation is that perceived inequality creates frustration among individuals at the lower end of the income distribution, this frustration generates latent anger, and this anger occasionally results in violence. There are reasons to question the validity of this explanation. First, the theoretical reasoning of this populatio…
In Memoriam Joan R. Petersilia (1951–2019)
This review synthesizes the historical literature on the criminalization and incarceration of black Americans for an interdisciplinary audience. Drawing on key insights from new histories in the field of American carceral studies, we trace the ...Read More
A comparison of aggravated assault rate trends in rural, suburban, and urban areas using the UCR and NCS/NCVS, 1988–2005
Replication in Criminology and the Social Sciences
Replication is a hallmark of science. In recent years, some medical sciences and behavioral sciences struggled with what came to be known as replication crises. As a field, criminology has yet to address formally the threats to our evidence base that might be posed by large-scale and systematic replication attempts, although it is likely we would face challenges similar to those experienced by other disciplines. In this review, we outline the bas…
What is past is prologue: A population‐based case‐control study of repeat victimization, premature mortality, and homicide
We examined risk of male premature mortality associated with recent criminal victimization. Prior victimization is among the most consistent predictors of future risk but the explanation of repeat victimization remains elusive. Two general perspectives frame this debate. According to the state-dependence perspective, repeat victimization is forged through intervening processes connecting an initial with a subsequent violent victimization. Accordi…
How Does Social Protection Influence Cross-National Homicide Rates in OECD Nations
Social protection exhibits a consistent negative association with cross-national homicide rates. However, the specific mechanism through which the two are associated remains untested in spite of competing theoretical claims that include altruism, social control, buffers from market forces, and insulation from the ills associated with poverty. We explore these possible theoretical explanations, focusing on different originating sources (e.g., publ…
Research on social disorganization theory and crime in rural communities
Social disorganization is one logical place to begin this exploration given its dominance in structural criminology. Research on social disorganization and crime in rural areas faces important measurement and methodological challenges. Some scholars suggest social disorganization theory may explain the differences in urban and rural crime rates because the latter are routinely characterized as having greater levels of cohesion, shared values and …
The U.S. housing crisis and suicide rates: An examination of total-, sex-, and race-specific suicide rates
The US housing crisis affected millions of people nationwide. One recent study found a connection between foreclosure and suicide, and prior research showed an association between macro-level economic hardship and suicide rates. Using data from 142 US metropolitan statistical areas and a measure of housing stress that accounts for limitations of prior measures, we tested the association between the housing crisis and overall and sex- and race-spe…
A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Association between Percent Young and Cross-National Homicide Rates
Is there an association between the proportion of the population that is young and national homicide rates, and when testing other theories cross-nationally is it necessary to control for this concept? To answer these questions, we carried out an extensive review of the empirical literature and then used data for the years 1999–2004 from a sample of 55 nations to test two predominant hypotheses: Percent young is significantly associated with homi…
Hazardous Drinking and Violent Mortality Among Males: Evidence from a Population-Based Case-Control Study
The goal of this study was to determine the risk of homicide victimization associated with an underlying pattern of hazardous drinking. Data were from the Izhevsk Family Study (IFS), a large-scale, population-based case-control study. There were two sets of cases: all men aged 25 to 54 years living in Izhevsk during October 2003 through October 2005 who were (1) homicide victims ( n = 45) or (2) homicide victims or died of injuries of undetermine…
Incarceration and Health
The expansion of the penal system has been one of the most dramatic trends in contemporary American society. A wealth of research has examined the impact of incarceration on a range of later life outcomes and has considered how the penal system has emerged as a mechanism of stratification and inequality in the United States. In this article, we review the literature from a comparatively new vein of this research: the impact of incarceration on he…
Measuring violent victimization: Rural, suburban, and urban police notification and emergency room treatment
The Mortality Penalty of Incarceration: Evidence from a Population-based Case-control Study of Working-age Males
There is a growing body of research on the effects of incarceration on health, though there are few studies in the sociological literature of the association between incarceration and premature mortality. This study examined the risk of male premature mortality associated with incarceration. Data came from the Izhevsk (Russia) Family Study, a large-scale population-based case-control design. Cases ( n = 1,750) were male deaths aged 25 to 54 in Iz…
Reduction in Male Suicide Mortality Following the 2006 Russian Alcohol Policy: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis
Objectives. We took advantage of a natural experiment to assess the impact on suicide mortality of a suite of Russian alcohol policies. Methods. We obtained suicide counts from anonymous death records collected by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service. We used autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) interrupted time series techniques to model the effect of the alcohol policy (implemented in January 2006) on monthly male and female…
Social Disorganization and Crime in Rural Communities: The First Direct Test of the Systemic Model
While there is considerable empirical evidence that social disorganization is positively associated with crime rates in urban areas, the empirical literature on rural social disorganization and crime faces three crucial limitations: inconsistent results, reliance on official crime statistics and the failure to test the full model. We overcome the two latter limitations via the British Crime Survey. Using data from respondents living in rural area…
The effect of poverty and social protection on national homicide rates: Direct and moderating effects
Incarceration and Health
The expansion of the penal system has been one of the most dramatic trends in contemporary American society. A wealth of research has examined the impact of incarceration on a range of later life outcomes and has considered how the penal system has emerged as a mechanism of stratification and inequality in the United States. In this article, we review the literature from a comparatively new vein of this research: the impact of incarceration on he…
A Methodological Addition to the Cross‐national Empirical Literature on Social Structure and Homicide: A First Test of the Poverty‐homicide Thesis
Dozens of cross‐national studies of homicide have been published in the last three decades. Although nearly all these studies test for an association between inequality and homicide, no studies test for a poverty—homicide association. This absence is disconcerting given that poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of area homicide rates in the abundant empirical literature on social structure and homicide in the United States. Using a sa…
Vodka and Violence: Alcohol Consumption and Homicide Rates in Russia
In Russia, rates of alcohol consumption and homicide are among the highest in the world, and already-high levels increased dramatically after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Rates of both, however, vary greatly among Russia’s 89 regions. We took advantage of newly available vital statistics and socioeconomic data to examine the regional covariation of drinking and lethal violence. Log-log models were employed to estimate the impact of alcohol co…
Poverty Matters: A Reassessment of the Inequality-Homicide Relationship in Cross-National Studies
Dozens of cross-national studies of homicide have been published. Virtually all have reported an association between inequality and homicide, leading scholars to draw strong conclusions about this relationship. Unfortunately, each of these studies failed to control for poverty, even though poverty is the most consistent predictor of area homicide rates in the US empirical literature and a main confounder of the inequality-homicide association. Th…
The changing nature of murder in Russia
Demographic, Temporal, and Spatial Patterns of Homicide Rates in Russia
Interpersonal violence increased dramatically in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In this article, newly available arrest data from the Russian Ministry of the Interior and vital statistics data from the Russian State Committee for Statistics are employed in order to examine the demographic, temporal, and spatial patterns of homicide rates in the country. Among other findings, analyses reveal (1) homicide vict…
Measuring homicide in Russia: A Comparison of Estimates From the Crime and Vital Statistics Reporting Systems
Heavy Drinking and Suicide in Russia
Russian levels of alcohol consumption and suicide are among the highest in the world. While observers have long suspected an association between the two, they were unable to investigate this hypothesis until recently due to past Soviet secrecy and thus a lack of data. This study took advantage of the newly available data during the post-Soviet era to examine the cross-sectional association between heavy drinking and suicide mortality in Russia. A…
The Mortality Penalty of Incarceration: Evidence from a Population-based Case-control Study of Working-age Males
There is a growing body of research on the effects of incarceration on health, though there are few studies in the sociological literature of the association between incarceration and premature mortality. This study examined the risk of male premature mortality associated with incarceration. Data came from the Izhevsk (Russia) Family Study, a large-scale population-based case-control design. Cases ( n = 1,750) were male deaths aged 25 to 54 in Iz…
Democratization and Political Change as Threats to Collective Sentiments: Testing Durkheim in Russia
Durkheim argued that acute political crises result in increased homicide rates because they pose a threat to sentiments about the collective. Though crucial to Durkheim’s work on homicide, this idea remains untested. The authors took advantage of the natural experiment of the collapse of the Soviet Union to examine this hypothesis. Using data from Russian regions ( N = 78) and controlling for measures of anomie and other covariates, the authors e…
Replication in Criminology and the Social Sciences
Replication is a hallmark of science. In recent years, some medical sciences and behavioral sciences struggled with what came to be known as replication crises. As a field, criminology has yet to address formally the threats to our evidence base that might be posed by large-scale and systematic replication attempts, although it is likely we would face challenges similar to those experienced by other disciplines. In this review, we outline the bas…
Poverty, Socioeconomic Change, Institutional Anomie, and Homicide
Objective. This study examined institutional anomie theory in the context of transitional Russia. Methods. We employed an index of negative socioeconomic change and measures of family, education, and polity to test the hypothesis that institutional strength conditions the effects of poverty and socioeconomic change on homicide rates. Results. As expected, the results of models estimated using negative binomial regression show direct positive effe…
A Reassessment of the Association Between Social Disorganization and Youth Violence in Rural Areas
OBJECTIVE: To study the association between social disorganization and youth violence rates in rural communities. METHOD: We employed rural Missouri counties (N = 106) as units of analysis, measured serious violent victimization data via hospital records, and the same measures of social disorganization as Osgood and Chambers (2000). Controlling for spatial autocorrelation, the negative binomial estimator was used to estimate the effects of social…
Social Disorganization and Crime in Rural Communities: The First Direct Test of the Systemic Model
While there is considerable empirical evidence that social disorganization is positively associated with crime rates in urban areas, the empirical literature on rural social disorganization and crime faces three crucial limitations: inconsistent results, reliance on official crime statistics and the failure to test the full model. We overcome the two latter limitations via the British Crime Survey. Using data from respondents living in rural area…
Gender equity, traditional masculine culture, and female homicide victimization
The effect of poverty and social protection on national homicide rates: Direct and moderating effects
Community organization moderates the effect of alcohol outlet density on violence
There is growing evidence from multiple disciplines that alcohol outlet density is associated with community levels of assault. Based on the theoretical and empirical literatures on social organization and crime, we tested the hypothesis that the association between alcohol outlet density and neighbourhood violence rates is moderated by social organization. Using geocoded police data on assaults, geocoded data on the location of alcohol outlets, …
Women's Fatalistic Suicide in Iran: A Partial Test of Durkheim in an Islamic Republic
Durkheim's theory of fatalistic suicide, or suicide resulting from overregulation of behavior, has been neglected empirically. The authors test this hypothesis in Iran by examining the geographic distribution of female suicide. Employing the province as the unit of analysis, they examine the association between female suicide rates and multiple measures of social control of women, with rates expected to be higher in areas with greater social regu…
Socioeconomic Change and Homicide in A Transitional Society
Durkheim argued that rapid social change would produce anomic conditions which, in turn, would lead to increases in criminal and deviant behavior. Russia provides a unique opportunity to test this theory given the large-scale fundamental socioeconomic changes occurring in the nation. Russian homicide rates more than doubled in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and are now among the highest in the world. The pace and effects …
The Foreclosure Crisis and Crime: Is Housing‐Mortgage Stress Associated with Violent and Property Crime in U . S . Metropolitan Areas
Objective The objective of this study was to determine if the housing‐mortgage stress caused by the foreclosure crisis is associated with violent and property crime in U . S . metropolitan areas. Method Using a sample of 142 metropolitan statistical areas and controlling for other structural factors thought to be associated with urban violence rates, we employ weighted least squares regression to estimate the association between the Housing‐Mortg…
Social structure and homicide in post-Soviet Russia
Measuring violent victimization: Rural, suburban, and urban police notification and emergency room treatment
Reduction in Suicide Mortality Following a New National Alcohol Policy in Slovenia: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis
Objectives. We assessed the impact on suicide mortality of a new national policy in Slovenia that limits the availability of alcohol. Methods. We obtained monthly total, male, and female suicide counts in Slovenia between January 1997 and December 2005 and then employed autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) techniques to model the effect of the alcohol policy (implemented in March 2003). Results. There was a significant decrease in the…
Obtaining sensitive information from a wary population: A comparison of telephone and face-to-face surveys of welfare recipients in the United States
How Does Social Protection Influence Cross-National Homicide Rates in OECD Nations
Social protection exhibits a consistent negative association with cross-national homicide rates. However, the specific mechanism through which the two are associated remains untested in spite of competing theoretical claims that include altruism, social control, buffers from market forces, and insulation from the ills associated with poverty. We explore these possible theoretical explanations, focusing on different originating sources (e.g., publ…
Vodka and Violence: Alcohol Consumption and Homicide Rates in Russia
In Russia, rates of alcohol consumption and homicide are among the highest in the world, and already-high levels increased dramatically after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Rates of both, however, vary greatly among Russia’s 89 regions. We took advantage of newly available vital statistics and socioeconomic data to examine the regional covariation of drinking and lethal violence. Log-log models were employed to estimate the impact of alcohol co…
The changing nature of murder in Russia
Measuring homicide in Russia: A Comparison of Estimates From the Crime and Vital Statistics Reporting Systems
Demographic, Temporal, and Spatial Patterns of Homicide Rates in Russia
Interpersonal violence increased dramatically in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In this article, newly available arrest data from the Russian Ministry of the Interior and vital statistics data from the Russian State Committee for Statistics are employed in order to examine the demographic, temporal, and spatial patterns of homicide rates in the country. Among other findings, analyses reveal (1) homicide vict…
Conscription and Reform in the Russian Army
Conscription in the contemporary Russian Army faces many serious problems, the roots of which lie the legacy of the Soviet Union. The violent experience of conscript life was a pervasive feature of the late Soviet military and continues to be a pressing factor in making fear of conscription and draft evasion a reality of the Russian Army and a central issue in Russian society. Additionally, the economic crises of the transition have pressed the a…
Gender equity, traditional masculine culture, and female homicide victimization
Social support and homicide in transitional Russia
Poverty, Socioeconomic Change, Institutional Anomie, and Homicide
Objective. This study examined institutional anomie theory in the context of transitional Russia. Methods. We employed an index of negative socioeconomic change and measures of family, education, and polity to test the hypothesis that institutional strength conditions the effects of poverty and socioeconomic change on homicide rates. Results. As expected, the results of models estimated using negative binomial regression show direct positive effe…
A Culturally Informed Developmental Approach to Understanding Risk and Resiliency Among Native American Youth
An increasing amount of resources is being allocated by governmental agencies to the study of offending and related social problems among Native Americans. While experienced scholars are well aware of the special challenges and unique opportunities of carrying out research with Native Americans, expanding resources will likely attract others with less experience in this area. This paper provides some suggestions for undertaking extensive research…
Obtaining sensitive information from a wary population: A comparison of telephone and face-to-face surveys of welfare recipients in the United States
Social structure and homicide in post-Soviet Russia
A test of recent subcultural explanations of White violence in the United States
Democratization and Political Change as Threats to Collective Sentiments: Testing Durkheim in Russia
Durkheim argued that acute political crises result in increased homicide rates because they pose a threat to sentiments about the collective. Though crucial to Durkheim’s work on homicide, this idea remains untested. The authors took advantage of the natural experiment of the collapse of the Soviet Union to examine this hypothesis. Using data from Russian regions ( N = 78) and controlling for measures of anomie and other covariates, the authors e…
Heavy Drinking and Suicide in Russia
Russian levels of alcohol consumption and suicide are among the highest in the world. While observers have long suspected an association between the two, they were unable to investigate this hypothesis until recently due to past Soviet secrecy and thus a lack of data. This study took advantage of the newly available data during the post-Soviet era to examine the cross-sectional association between heavy drinking and suicide mortality in Russia. A…
Politics, culture, and political crime: Covariates of abortion clinic attacks in the United States
Change and Stability in the Characteristics of Homicide Victims, Offenders and Incidents During Rapid Social Change
The Russian homicide rate doubled during the 1990s and is now among the highest in the world. During this same period, Russian citizens experienced swift, widespread, and meaningful political, economic, and social change. It is likely that this profound transition altered structural conditions, cultural norms, and interpersonal relations in a way that led to changes in the nature of interpersonal violence. Taking advantage of a unique set of homi…
The Social–Structural Correlates of Homicide in Late-Tsarist Russia
Using official socio-economic and vital statistics data from the end of the tsarist period, this study builds on and extends previous investigations of homicide in early twentieth-century Europe by ...
Socioeconomic Change and Homicide in A Transitional Society
Durkheim argued that rapid social change would produce anomic conditions which, in turn, would lead to increases in criminal and deviant behavior. Russia provides a unique opportunity to test this theory given the large-scale fundamental socioeconomic changes occurring in the nation. Russian homicide rates more than doubled in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and are now among the highest in the world. The pace and effects …
An Overview of the Illicit Narcotics Problem in the Islamic Republic of Iran
The 2003 Slovenian Alcohol Policy: Background, Supporters, and Opponents
High levels of wine, beer, and spirits consumption have historically characterized Slovenian drinking culture. The geographical location of the country provides an ideal environment for wine production, historical ties with the Austro-Hungarian Empire contribute to the tradition of beer drinking, and the custom of home distilling has resulted in a considerable level of spirits consumption. This combination of factors contributes to the high level…
A Methodological Addition to the Cross‐national Empirical Literature on Social Structure and Homicide: A First Test of the Poverty‐homicide Thesis
Dozens of cross‐national studies of homicide have been published in the last three decades. Although nearly all these studies test for an association between inequality and homicide, no studies test for a poverty—homicide association. This absence is disconcerting given that poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of area homicide rates in the abundant empirical literature on social structure and homicide in the United States. Using a sa…
Women's Fatalistic Suicide in Iran: A Partial Test of Durkheim in an Islamic Republic
Durkheim's theory of fatalistic suicide, or suicide resulting from overregulation of behavior, has been neglected empirically. The authors test this hypothesis in Iran by examining the geographic distribution of female suicide. Employing the province as the unit of analysis, they examine the association between female suicide rates and multiple measures of social control of women, with rates expected to be higher in areas with greater social regu…
Reduction in Suicide Mortality Following a New National Alcohol Policy in Slovenia: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis
Objectives. We assessed the impact on suicide mortality of a new national policy in Slovenia that limits the availability of alcohol. Methods. We obtained monthly total, male, and female suicide counts in Slovenia between January 1997 and December 2005 and then employed autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) techniques to model the effect of the alcohol policy (implemented in March 2003). Results. There was a significant decrease in the…
Differences in female and male involvement in lethal violence in Russia
The effects of binge drinking and social capital on violent victimisation: Findings from Moscow
BACKGROUND: Rates of violence in Russia are among the highest in the world, and violent victimisation represents a major public health threat in the country. As yet, however, little research has been undertaken on what factors are associated with non-lethal violent victimisation in this setting. This study used data from the Moscow Health Survey 2004 to examine the effects of binge drinking and social capital on individuals' risk of non-fatal vio…
Sociology (42 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (38 works) · Poison control (38 works) · Medicine (37 works) · Demography (32 works) · Psychology (32 works) · Homicide (30 works) · Environmental health (27 works) · Criminology (24 works) · Injury prevention (23 works)