NCJ Number
194569
Journal
Criminology Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2002 Pages: 73-102
Date Published
March 2002
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine whether within-city variation in illicit drug-market activity was positively associated with within-city variation in homicide rates during the period 1984-97, as well as whether the illicit drug market-homicide association was contingent on pre-existing violence conducive socioeconomic conditions.
Abstract
The units of analysis were the 122 U.S. cities that had a minimum total population of 100,000 in 1980 and sufficient data on key variables during 1984-97. Data on homicide were drawn from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program's Supplementary Homicide Reports. Data on illicit drug-market activity for the targeted period were taken from a Uniform Crime Reports arrests file and from the Drug Use Forecasting Data program. Data on the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of the cities were obtained from the 1980 Summary Tape File 3C from the U.S. Census. The dependent variable was the annual city-level homicide offending rate during 1984-97. On the whole, the findings regarding the drug market-homicide association and the interaction between resource deprivation and the illicit drug markets were robust across different operationalizations of illicit drug-market activity. Moreover, additional analyses showed that these results also held when homicide victimization rates were substituted for homicide offending. The theory derived from these findings suggests that addressing the sources of resource deprivation in urban communities may have a therapeutic impact on crime rates. The findings also suggest that the extreme criminalization of drug-market activities may actually increase, rather than reduce, drug-related violence. 4 tables and 59 references