Structural Factors and Black Interracial Homicide: A New Examination of the Causal Process

• NCJ Number: 207059
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2004 Pages: 647-672
• Author(s): Tim Wadsworth; Charis E. Kubrin
• Date Published: August 2004
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the assumption that deprivation and inequality contribute to racial conflict and antagonism, resulting in Black interracial homicide.

Abstract

While many studies of homicide disaggregate homicide rates by race, scant research has accounted for variations in rates of interracial violence. The research that does exist has not directly measured the relationship between deprivation/inequality and interracial homicide. In addition to examining the assumption that deprivation and inequality lead to interracial homicide due to increased racial conflict and antagonism, the current study examined an alternate hypothesis that borrows from macrostructural opportunity theory. The study first assessed whether the relationship between city-level characteristics and Black interracial homicide can be explained by financially motivated crime and second, examined whether Black interracial homicides resulted from the interaction between high levels of interracial contact and financially motivated crime. Furthermore, the prevalence, nature, and motivation of different types of Black interracial homicides were analyzed and the structural predictors of each type of homicide were estimated. Data were drawn from the Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) from 1988 through 1992. Dependent variables were city-level measures of inter- and intraracial homicide by Black offenders. Independent variables included measures of racial inequality and Black robbery rates. Results of statistical analyses indicated that the effect of economic deprivation on Black interracial homicide was mediated by the inclusion of Black robbery rates in the analysis, suggesting that economic deprivation leads to more financially motivated crime, in turn leading to an increase in Black offenders killing White victims. Cities with the highest rates of Black interracial homicide also had the highest levels of racial heterogeneity and robbery, which is consistent with macrostructural opportunity theory. Tables, references