NCJ Number
204013
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2004 Pages: 40-56
Editor(s)
Thomas A. Petee,
Jay Corzine
Date Published
February 2004
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This analysis attempts to assess the scope and pattern of regional differences in rates of lethal and nonlethal offenses as indicated by the National Incident-Based Reporting System data for the year 2000.
Abstract
To evaluate aspects of recent “culture of violence theories,” this study used data for the year 2000 from the 2000 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). It attempts to explain the patterns of regional differences in rates of lethal and nonlethal offenses. The analysis begins with a discussion of some relatively recent attempts to explain high homicide victimization and offending rates for young African-American males; the first of which assumes and builds on what is sometimes called a southern tradition of violence, and the second which is an extension of ideas presented in the first explanation. A comparison is conducted on lethal and nonlethal violence in Iowa and South Carolina. These States were chosen due to having near complete participation in the NIBRS and each representing a distinctly different region of the country. The analysis assumes that if there are still much higher rates of violent crime committed by White males in the cities and counties of South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia than there are in Iowa, Massachusetts, or Michigan, one possible explanation would be that there are remnants of a southern concern for honor or that something like a southern culture of violence still operates in the South. However, cities with populations of more than 25,000 people that report NIBRS data provide very little support for the existence of a southern culture of violence. This examination of race-specific violent offender rates for cities and the areas outside those cities indicates the limitations of a focus on regional differences in overall State-level rates of victimization.