NCJ Number
231280
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2010 Pages: 215-218
Date Published
August 2010
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This journal presents scholarly contributions examining the contextual effects of neighborhoods on individual criminality and the exploration of homicide trends over time in aggregate studies of blocks, neighborhoods, and cities.
Abstract
Twenty years ago, when Land, McCall, and Cohen's (LMC) 1990 article "Structural Covariates of Homicide Rates: Are There any Invariances Across Time and Social Space"? was published, during a time steeped in ecological studies of crime rates and studies in the nature of social and economic influences on homicide behavior. The LMC article raised and studied the question of whether there were any invariant relationships of structural feature to homicide rates across time and social space or units of analysis, providing the foundation for future studies of homicide and the covariates. This journal issue presents the diverse areas of research adopted since LMC (1990) examining the contextual effects of neighborhoods on individual criminality and trajectory analyses to explore homicide trends over time in aggregate studies of blocks, neighborhoods, and cities. Article areas presented include: 1) a review of the 1990 LMC article reviewing conceptual advances in the study of homicide; 2) exploration of structural characteristics of Chicago neighborhood between 1965 and 1995 and identifies seven unique overtime homicide trajectories; 3) demonstration of the benefit of incorporating homicide type-specific data into studies of the southern culture of violence thesis; 4) examination of race-specific homicide victimization among Latinos; and 5) a review of extant cross-national homicide studies and assessment of invariant findings of support for the classic covariates identified in the LMC study (resource deprivation, population structure, and family disruption).