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Journal Article

Citation

O'Carroll PW, Mercy JA. Violence Vict. 1989; 4(1): 17-25.

Affiliation

Division of Injury Epidemiology and Control, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia 30333.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2487123

Abstract

Scientists have long been interested in the fact that the South has consistently had the highest crude homicide rates in the United States. Past investigations, however, have generally been predicated on the assumption that this geographic pattern was not attributable to or substantially altered by the age or race structures of the populations being compared. In this study, we calculated age-adjusted homicide rates for each of three race categories--white, black, and other--for each state and region in the United States in 1980. We found that for each race group, homicide rates were highest, not in the South, but in the West. Moreover, homicide rates for blacks were lower in the South than in any other region of the country. We infer that, for 1980 at least, the high crude homicide rate in the South results from the mutual effect of two factors: (1) blacks have very high homicide rates compared with whites, and (2) blacks make up a larger proportion of the population in the South than in other regions of the country. It remains to be determined whether the age-adjusted, race-stratified rates of past decades also show this pattern.

VioLit summary:

OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by O'Carroll and Mercy was to examine regional variations in homicide rates across the United States, taking into account both race and age of each area's population.

METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design with secondary analysis of mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. The researchers examined deaths coded by the International Classification of Diseases as 'Homicide and Injury Purposely Inflicted by Other Persons', in order to identify homicides across the country in 1980. Race data was divided into three categories: white, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other caucasians; black; and other, including American Indians, Alaskan natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders. States were classified into regions according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including Northeast, North Central, South and West. Population data were also gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, and homicide rates were adjusted for age using the total population of the United States as the standard. Analysis included examination of frequencies and rates of homicide.

FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors found that for all races combined, the crude and the age-adjusted rates of homicide were the greatest in the Southern region (13.4 per 100,000 population and 13.5 per 100,000 population respectively) of the United States, followed by the West (11.3 and 11.0), the Northeast (8.3 and 8.4) and lastly the North Central region (8.3 and 8.3). However, when races were considered separately, both these levels were found to be the highest in the West. For whites, both crude and age-adjusted rates were highest in the West (9.9 and 9.7), second highest in the South (9.1 and 9.0), then in the Northeast (5.3 and 5.3) and lowest in the North central region (4.5 and 4.5). For blacks, after the West (50.5 and 48.7), rates were highest in the North Central region (47.0 and 48.5), then in the Northeast region (37.4 and 37.6), and lowest in the South (33.5 and 35.7). For those of other races, rates were highest in the West (4.4 and 4.8), followed by the North Central areas (3.6 and 3.5), the South (3.3 and 3.3) and the Northeast region (2.3 and 2.4). The authors also examined the influence of the large states within each region, and concluded that the race-specific homicide rates could not be attributed to these large-population states. They suggested that, contrary to popular belief that the South has the highest homicide rate, their findings showed that it was the West that presented the greatest risk of homicide in the United States in 1980. It was suggested that the highest overall rates of homicide were found in the South due to the fact that blacks had higher homicide rates than the other two racial groups in all regions, and the South had a larger population of blacks than did the other regions.

AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that although the age adjustment had little effect upon the data, it should continue to be used in such research, along with the U.S. Census Bureau data base. It was also suggested that future research examine the homicide rates for each race over the previous decades, to determine if the West has consistently had higher homicide rates, or if this has been a new development. If this phenomenon were to be found to be a recent one, the authors suggested examining the causes of the shift of high rates to the Western region. The authors concluded that the use of age- and race-specific analyses be extended for the study of geographic variation in any disorder, disease or phenomenon that is thought to vary along these lines.

EVALUATION:
The authors present a brief but interesting examination of homicide rates across the United States. Whilst a more thorough discussion of the implications of the findings, and of the findings themselves, would have been helpful, the suggestions for future research using these age- and race-specific techniques should prove valuable for the continued study of geographic variation in rates of certain phenomena. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
N1 - Call Number: J, AB-221
KW - Regional Factors
KW - Regional Data
KW - Southern Violence
KW - Homicide Victim
KW - Homicide Rates
KW - Death Rates
KW - Age Factors
KW - Age Differences
KW - Ethnic Differences
KW - Ethnic Factors
KW - Ethnicity
KW - Racial Differences
KW - Comparative Analysis
KW - Adult Victim
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Caucasian Victim
KW - Hispanic Victim
KW - African American Victim
KW - Native American Victim
KW - Asian Victim

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