NCJ Number
228167
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 13 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2009 Pages: 274-287
Date Published
August 2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines the role of community-level factors on Latino- and Black-specific homicides and suicides in Miami, FL.
Abstract
More immigration means less Black and Latino homicide, suggesting that newcomers were not disrupting communities or undermining social integration. Yet, immigration did not contribute to more Latino or Black suicides, a finding at odds with the limited suicide and social integration research area; economic disadvantage may serve as an indicator of social integration, and the findings for Latino suicides in this study were consistent with this line of theorizing. Results demonstrate that beyond immigration, most neighborhood measures had some relationship with outcomes for both groups. Consistent with social disorganization theory, greater group-specific disadvantage was related to more Latino homicides and suicides, as well as more Black homicides. Residential stability was related to Latino homicides; fewer killings occurred in more stable neighborhoods. The spatial lag was related to the numbers of Latino and Black homicides, indicating that they were clustered in space. For Blacks and Latinos, more group-specific residents were associated with more deaths of both types. The somewhat varying results between and within groups suggest that the ethnic invariance assumption was not fully supported. Data were collected from homicide and suicide data from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office (1985-1995) and the 1990 decennial census (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990). Tables, notes, and references