The Influence of Social and Economic Disadvantage on Racial Patterns in Youth Homicide Over Time

Explanations for the increase in youth homicide in the mid-1980s and early 1990s focus predominantly on crack cocaine markets and related firearms effects. This study examines whether weakened social controls contributed to the escalation of youth homicide, independent of drug market effects. Specifically, the authors consider how city-level changes in social and economic disadvantage contributed to increases in race-specific youth homicide victimization. They find that structural factors played an important role in race- and age-specific youth homicide rates, independent of others factors, including drug arrests. City-level increases in social and economic disadvantage were positively associated with increases in Black teenage and young adult homicide rates and White teenage homicide rates. The implications of these findings for theories of homicide are discussed.

[1]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Are arrest statistics a valid measure of illicit drug use? The relationship between criminal justice and public health indicators of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana use , 1999 .

[2]  Pamela Irving Jackson,et al.  Crime, youth gangs, and urban transition: The social dislocations of postindustrial economic development , 1991 .

[3]  Lauren J. Krivo,et al.  Disadvantage and Neighborhood Violent Crime: Do Local Institutions Matter? , 2000 .

[4]  A. Piehl,et al.  Youth Homicide in Boston , 1999 .

[5]  Fred Phillips,et al.  Linear Panel Analysis: Models of Quantitative Change. , 1982 .

[6]  C. Clogg,et al.  Statistical Methods for Comparing Regression Coefficients Between Models , 1995, American Journal of Sociology.

[7]  L Isaacson,et al.  The Enduring Effects of Cohort Characteristics on Age‐Specific Homicide Rates, 1960‐1995 , 1999, American Journal of Sociology.

[8]  Janet L. Lauritsen,et al.  The Influence of Crack Cocaine on Robbery, Burglary, and Homicide Rates: A Cross-City, Longitudinal Analysis , 1998 .

[9]  W. Wilson.  When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor , 1996 .

[10]  Mary E Pattillo,et al.  Sweet Mothers and Gangbangers: Managing Crime in a Black Middle-Class Neighborhood , 1998 .

[11]  Daniel L. Cork,et al.  Examining Space–Time Interaction in City-Level Homicide Data: Crack Markets and the Diffusion of Guns Among Youth , 1999 .

[12]  Graham C. Ousey,et al.  YOUNG GUNS: EXAMINING ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF JUVENILE FIREARM HOMICIDE RATES , 2001 .

[13]  Lawrence E. Cohen,et al.  Structural Covariates of Homicide Rates: Are There Any Invariances Across Time and Social Space? , 1990, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  Robert M. O'Brien,et al.  The Determinants of Deadly Force: A Structural Analysis of Police Violence1 , 1998, American Journal of Sociology.

[15]  Graham C. Ousey,et al.  Industrial Restructuring and Violence: The Link between Entry-Level Jobs, Economic Deprivation, and Black and White Homicide , 1998 .

[16]  S. Bushway.  The Impact of an Arrest on the Job Stability of Young White American Men , 1998 .

[17]  G. Markowitz,et al.  Crime is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America , 1999 .

[18]  W. Reiboldt.  Adolescent Interactions With Gangs, Family, and Neighborhoods , 2001 .

[19]  A. Biderman,et al.  Understanding Crime Incidence Statistics: Why the UCR Diverges From the NCS , 1991 .

[20]  Darrell J. Steffensmeier,et al.  Economic Inequality, Family Disruption, and Urban Black Violence: Cities as Units of Stratification and Social Control , 1994 .

[21]  R. Morgan.  Crime is not the problem: lethal violence in America , 1999 .

[22]  G. LaFree.  Social Institutions and the Crime "Bust" of the 1990s , 1998 .

[23]  Steven Ruggles,et al.  The origins of African-American family structure , 1994 .

[24]  I. Luckey.  : American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass , 1995 .

[25]  Kenneth C. Land,et al.  UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRIME RATES IN THE POST- WORLD WAR II UNITED STATES: A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS , 1985 .

[26]  John Hagan,et al.  Crime and Inequality , 1996 .

[27]  Ruth Horowitz,et al.  The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control.Malcolm W. Klein , 1996 .

[28]  J. Laub,et al.  Structural variations in Juvenile Court processing: Inequality, the underclass, and social control , 1993 .

[29]  Frederic M. Thrasher,et al.  The gang : a study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago. , 1936 .

[30]  A. Biderman,et al.  Understanding Crime Incidence Statistics , 1991 .

[31]  Alfred Blumstein,et al.  The Crime Drop in America , 2005 .

[32]  Ronald C. Kessler,et al.  Linear Panel Analysis: Models of Quantitative Change. , 1984 .

[33]  G. Jarjoura,et al.  Household Characteristics, Neighborhood Composition and Victimization Risk , 1989 .

[34]  D. Elliott,et al.  The Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Adolescent Development , 1996 .

[35]  J. Williams,et al.  African American Family Structure , 2000 .

[36]  Richard Rosenfeld,et al.  Explaining recent trends in U.S. homicide rates , 1998 .

[37]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Urban Black Violence: The Effect of Male Joblessness and Family Disruption , 1987, American Journal of Sociology.

[38]  K. Seccombe.  Families in Poverty in the 1990s: Trends, Causes, Consequences, and Lessons Learned , 2000 .

[39]  Judith R. Blau,et al.  The Cost of Inequality: Metropolitan Structure and Violent Crime , 1982 .

[40]  Angela R. Gover,et al.  Concentrated Disadvantage and Youth-On-Youth Homicide , 2005 .

[41]  S. Messner.  Poverty, Inequality, and the Urban Homicide Rate: Some Unexpected Findings , 1982 .

[42]  Robert J. Bursik,et al.  SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION AND THEORIES OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS* , 1988 .

[43]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. , 1997, Science.

[44]  W. Greene,et al.  计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis , 2009 .

[45]  William Julius Wilson,et al.  When Work Disappears: New Implications for Race and Urban Poverty in the Global Economy , 1998, Celebrating 40 Years of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

[46]  W. Wilson,et al.  The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. , 1988 .

[47]  L. Wirth,et al.  Urbanism as a Way of Life , 1938, American Journal of Sociology.

[48]  D. Commerce.  Statistical abstract of the United States , 1978 .

[49]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  The Sex Ratio, Family Disruption, and Rates of Violent Crime: The Paradox of Demographic Structure , 1991 .

[50]  R. Sampson.  Collective Regulation of Adolescent Misbehavior , 1997 .

[51]  Darrell J. Steffensmeier,et al.  Youth, Underemployment, and Property Crime: Differential Effects of Job Availability and Job Quality on Juvenile and Young Adult Arrest Rates , 1989 .

[52]  Philip J. Cook,et al.  The Unprecedented Epidemic in Youth Violence , 1998, Crime and Justice.

[53]  R. Merton.  Social Structure and Anomie , 1938 .

[54]  Karen F. Parker,et al.  STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS AND RACIAL HOMICIDE PATTERNS: A LOOK AT THE MULTIPLE DISADVANTAGES IN URBAN AREAS* , 1999 .

[55]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Crime in Cities: The Effects of Formal and Informal Social Control , 1986, Crime and Justice.

[56]  R. Sampson,et al.  Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory , 1989, American Journal of Sociology.

[57]  D. McDowall,et al.  A Comparison of Supplementary Homicide Reports and National Vital Statistics System Homicide Estimates for U.S. Counties , 2000 .

[58]  Graham C. Ousey,et al.  EXAMINING THE CONDITIONAL NATURE OF THE ILLICIT DRUG MARKET-HOMICIDE RELATIONSHIP: A PARTIAL TEST OF THE THEORY OF CONTINGENT CAUSATION , 2002 .

[59]  U. C. Bureau,et al.  Census of Population and Housing , 1993 .

[60]  H. D. McKay,et al.  Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas , 1943 .

[61]  Jeffrey T. Grogger,et al.  The Emergence of Crack Cocaine and the Rise in Urban Crime Rates , 2000, Review of Economics and Statistics.

[62]  Jeffrey T. Grogger.  The Effect of Arrests on the Employment and Earnings of Young Men , 1995 .

[63]  W. Wilson.  The truly disadvantaged : the inner city, the underclass, and public policy , 1988 .

[64]  D. Massey.  American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass , 1993 .

[65]  M. Tonry,et al.  Youth Violence in America , 1998, Crime and Justice.

[66]  Elijah Anderson,et al.  The Social Ecology of Youth Violence , 1998, Crime and Justice.

[67]  D. Osgood.  Poisson-Based Regression Analysis of Aggregate Crime Rates , 2000 .

[68]  Richard Rosenfeld,et al.  Crime and the American Dream , 1993 .

[69]  A. Blumstein,et al.  The Recent Rise and Fall of American Violence , 2005, Crime, Inequality and the State.

[70]  Malcolm W. Klein,et al.  “CRACK,” STREET GANGS, AND VIOLENCE* , 1991 .

[71]  Julie A. Phillips.  VARIATION IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOMICIDE RATES: AN ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL EXPLANATIONS* , 1997 .

[72]  Lauren J. Krivo,et al.  Macrostructural Analyses of Race, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime: Recent Lessons and New Directions for Research , 2005 .

[73]  J. Diiulio,et al.  Body Count: Moral Poverty...And How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs , 1996 .

[74]  Alfred Blumstein,et al.  Youth Violence, Guns, and the Illicit-Drug Industry , 1995 .

[75]  Lauren J. Krivo,et al.  Extremely Disadvantaged Neighborhoods and Urban Crime , 1996 .