RACE AND CRIME IN POSTWAR AMERICA: DETERMINANTS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE RATES, 1957-1988 (original) (raw)
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The current study used data drawn from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the census to investigate the relationship between indicators of interracial and intraracial economic inequality and violent crime rates, including White-on-Black, White-on-White, Black-on-White, and Black-on-Black offenses. Multivariate regression results for ninety-one cities showed that while total inequality and intraracial inequality had no significant association with offending rates, interracial inequality was a strong predictor of the overall violent crime rate and the Black-on-Black crime rate. Overall, these results were interpreted as consistent with J.R. relative deprivation thesis, with secondary support for P.M. macrostructural theory of intergroup relations. The findings also helped to clarify the unresolved theoretical issue regarding which reference group was most important in triggering relative deprivation among Blacks. It appeared that prior studies were unable to find support for the relative deprivation thesis for Black crime rates because of data and methodological limitations.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 2009
Studies of race and crime have emphasized the effects of social disadvantage and discrimination on increasing crime among African Americans. The authors extend this literature by examining various beliefs and institutions that have developed within African American communities that, in contrast, decrease criminal behavior. A model of cross-canceling, indirect effects between race and crime was developed and tested with data from the National Youth Survey. The results demonstrate that some factors, such as single-parent families, lowered educational attainment, and crime-ridden neighborhoods, increase criminal behavior among African American respondents relative to Whites. However, other factors, such as increased religiosity, strong family ties, and lowered alcohol consumption, decrease crime. These findings highlight the complex effects of race on crime.
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Ssrn Electronic Journal, 1998
The relationship between crime and labor market conditions is typically studied by looking at the unemployment rate. In contrast, this paper argues that wages are a better measure of labor market conditions than the unemployment rate. As the wages of those most likely to commit crime (unskilled men) have been falling in the past few decades, we examine the impact of this trend on the crime rate giving special attention to issues of endogeneity. Wages are found to be a significant determinant of crime and more important than the unemployment rate. As theory would predict, economic factors are more important for property crime than violent crime. These results are robust to various measures of wages, two regression strategies, the inclusion of deterrence variables, and controls for simultaneity.
Crime Rates and Local Labor Market Opportunities in the United States: 1979–1997
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2002
The relationship between crime and labor market conditions is typically studied by looking at the unemployment rate. In contrast, this paper argues that wages are a better measure of labor market conditions than the unemployment rate. As the wages of those most likely to commit crime (unskilled men) have been falling in the past few decades, we examine the impact of this trend on the crime rate giving special attention to issues of endogeneity. Wages are found to be a significant determinant of crime and more important than the unemployment rate. As theory would predict, economic factors are more important for property crime than violent crime. These results are robust to various measures of wages, two regression strategies, the inclusion of deterrence variables, and controls for simultaneity.
Contemporary Economic Policy, 1987
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Do minorities live in higher crime neighborhoods because they lack the class resources to live in better areas, or do racial differences in exposure to crime persist even for blacks and whites of comparable backgrounds? Does living in the suburbs reduce exposure to crime equally for whites and blacks? This study analyzes the determinants of living in local areas with higher or lower crime rates in the Cleveland metropolitan region in 1990. Multivariate models are estimated for whites and blacks, with separate models for city and suburban residents and for violent crime and property crime. Within the city, exposure to both types of crime is strongly related to socioeconomic status for both races, but there are also strong independent effects of race on exposure to violent crime. In the suburbs, whites are concentrated in communities with low crime rates regardless of their social class. There are substantial class differences among suburban nonwhites, but even afluent blacks live in places with a higher violent crime rate than do poor whites.