Economic Sources of Homicide: Reestimating the Effects of Poverty and Inequality

A tradition of research has consistently found that poverty is a major economic source of homicide. Two studies have recently presented findings that call this research tradition into question. The studies are reviewed, and it is argued that these contradictory findings are the result of an incorrect specification of the relationship between poverty and the homicide rate. Revised estimates of the effect of poverty are reported which show that it is a significant positive predictor of the homicide rate for a sample of SMSAs (N=125) when the nonlinearform of the relationship is taken into account. That effect, however, appears to vary by the regional location of SMSAs, that is, whether they are in the South or non-South. The implications of the findings for economic and subcultural explanations of homicide are briefly discussed.