Citation

Smith MD, Brewer VE. Violence Vict. 1992; 7(4): 279-286.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118-5698.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1308435

Abstract

A considerable amount of research has been devoted to determining structural correlates of homicide across places in the United States. However, recent research has found that general correlates may not hold when homicide rates are disaggregated into analysis of specific groups. Adopting a public health approach, we explore the possibility that male and female rates of homicide victimization may show differential patterns of association with selected social-structural risk factors across a sample of U.S. central cities. The results show that both male and female homicide victimization is related to a general set of factors derived from the theoretical framework of social disorganization. At the same time, it is found that these factors are better predictors of male than female homicides. Suggestions are made for research to discern additional factors, perhaps distinct from those of men, related to the rather considerable variation in the prevalence of female homicide across communities in the United States.

Language: en