Race, Institutions, and American Homicide: A Du Boisian Test of Institutional Anomie Theory

Institutional anomie theory (IAT) argues that crime rates will be higher in areas characterized by a value complex that elevates the economy over non-economic institutions. Drawing on the Du Boisian tradition and race-relations scholarship, we argue that the racialized nature of American society influences racial differences in aggregate-level institutional commitments. These racial differences may, in turn, confound the “institutional balance of power” in race-neutral US–based IAT research. We present and test a racially informed IAT approach that directly addresses the racial structure of American society, therefore fostering a more rigorous evaluation of the validity and relevance of IAT. We use race-neutral and race-specific data from multiple sources to examine the relationship between race, social institutions, and homicide offending. Results from our county-level analysis demonstrate distinct institutional effects across race-specific African American and White IAT models, suggesting preliminary support for a race-sensitive approach. Our race-neutral results were generally consistent with IAT's expectations; however, this may not always be the case, depending on the racial balance of the sample. At a general level, the results of our study highlight the relevance of a racially informed IAT approach for enhancing evaluations of the theory in subnational research and explaining race-specific patterns of offending.