Structral Conditions and Racial Homicide Patterns: A Look at the Multiple Disadvantages in Urban Areas

• NCJ Number: 178768
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 447-478
• Author(s): Karen F. Parker; Patricia L. McCall
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 32 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines the various effects of structural conditions on race-specific victim and offender homicide rates in large U.S. cities in 1990.

Abstract

The article gives particular attention to those structural theories that highlight racial competition, economic and labor market opportunity and racial segregation as essential for an examination of racially disaggregated homicide offending. The article estimates the effects of these and other structural conditions for four racially distinct homicide offending models: black intraracial, white intraracial, black interracial and white interracial homicides. Economic deprivation and local opportunity structures significantly influenced the rates of intraracial homicide offending, while racial inequality contributed solely to black interracial homicide rates. Blacks and whites faced different economic and social realities related to economic deprivation and social isolation. Notes, tables, references, appendixes