Deadly Connections: Culture, Poverty, and the Direction of Lethal Violence

• NCJ Number: 153025
• Journal: Social Forces Volume: 69 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 715-732
• Author(s): L Huff-Corzine; J Corzine; D C Moore
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This article examines the relationships among region, homicide, and suicide in the southern United States, and the effect of high levels of poverty on the pattern of Southern lethal violence.

Abstract

For over a century, studies have consistently reported high rates of homicide in the southern United States. Some researchers argue that cultural differences tied to region are of primary importance in explaining this pattern, while others attribute high levels of homicide in the South to structural influences, particularly severe poverty. The authors found that: (1) severe poverty is positively associated with lethal-violence rates for both whites and blacks; (2) regional influence has no significant impact on the lethal-violence rates, but affects the mix of violence by increasing the proportion that is expressed as homicide among both blacks and whites; and (3) poverty increases the level of suicide relative to homicide for whites, but not for blacks. Multivariate analyses of statewide lethal-violence rates for blacks and whites support the contention that both high levels of poverty and cultural distinctiveness affect the pattern of southern lethal violence. Tables, notes, references