Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime

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Abstract

Studies have shown that poverty and income are powerful predictors of homicide and violent crime. We hypothesized that the effect of the growing gap between the rich and poor is mediated through an undermining of social cohesion, or social capital, and that decreased social capital is in turn associated with increased firearm homicide and violent crime. Social capital was measured by the weighted responses to two items from the U.S. General Social Survey: the per capita density of membership in voluntary groups in each state; and the level of social trust, as gauged by the proportion of residents in each state who believed that “most people would take advantage of you if they got the chance”. Age-standardized firearm homicide rates for the years 1987–1991 and firearm robbery and assault incidence rates for years 1991–1994 were obtained for each of the 50 U.S. states. Income inequality was strongly correlated with firearm violent crime (firearm homicide, r=0.76) as well as the measures of social capital: per capita group membership (r=−0.40) and lack of social trust (r=0.73). In turn, both social trust (firearm homicide, r=0.83) and group membership (firearm homicide, r=−0.49) were associated with firearm violent crime. These relationships held when controlling for poverty and a proxy variable for access to firearms. The profound effects of income inequality and social capital, when controlling for other factors such as poverty and firearm availability, on firearm violent crime indicate that policies that address these broader, macro-social forces warrant serious consideration.

Introduction

“Take the people of Briançon. They allow the needy, the widows and orphans, to cut their hay three days earlier than the rest. When their homes are in ruins they repair them for nothing... In the past hundred years they have not had a single murder”.

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)

Intentional injuries resulting from violence make a significant contribution to the mortality and morbidity of the U.S. population. Injuries caused by violent behavior are estimated to cost American society approximately $26 billion dollars a year (Rice et al., 1989). Currently, homicide is the leading cause of death for young African–American males and females (15–34) and the second leading cause of death for all 10–19 year-olds with an increasing number attributable to firearms (Hammett et al., 1992; Fingerhut et al., 1992).

Much of the recent policy debate concerning ways to reduce intentional injuries due to violence has focused on restricting access to lethal means such as firearms. Recent studies suggest a strong association between gun availability and homicide rates (Cook, 1991; McDowell et al., 1992; Kellermann et al., 1993). Furthermore, there has been an increase in adolescent self-reports of carrying firearms that may have contributed to the homicide problem, although whether the increase in weapon-carrying is due to increased access to weapons or some other factor remains unclear (Reiss and Roth, 1993).

Unfortunately, the debate about restricting access to firearms has focused attention on individual behaviors often to the exclusion of other important determinants of violent crime. The role that broader social factors, such as income inequality and poverty, play in determining the incidence of violent crime have been increasingly neglected in the current policy debate. Studies have shown that poverty and income inequality, whether at the city, state, or national level, are powerful predictors of homicide and violent crime (Blau and Blau, 1986; Krahn et al., 1986; Land et al., 1990; Hsieh and Pugh, 1993). Income inequality, or other indices of relative deprivation, are considered to be stronger predictors of homicide and violent crime than indices of absolute deprivation, such as poverty (Baily, 1984; Messner, 1989). Recently, Kennedy et al. (1996) found that the Robin Hood Index, a measure of income inequality, predicted state-level variations in homicide rates. Even after adjusting for poverty, income inequality accounted for 52% of the between-state variance in homicide rates.

A number of theories have attempted to explain the observed relationship between income inequality and violent crime (Shaw and McKay, 1942; Blau and Blau, 1986; Wilson, 1987). Much of this work is built on an initial hypothesis by Shaw and McKay (1942) that inequality, and the concentration of poor economic conditions, lead to social disorganization through a breakdown of social cohesion and normlessness. It is hypothesized that communities lacking in social cohesion (social capital) are less effective in exerting informal means of social control through establishing and maintaining norms to reduce violence compared to communities with higher levels of social capital (Sampson and Wilson, 1995).

The present study was undertaken to examine two related hypotheses: (1) state-level variations in income inequality predict firearm homicide, assault, and robbery rates independent of poverty and firearm availability; (2) state-level variations in social capital predict firearm homicide, assault, and robbery rates independent of poverty and firearm availability; and (3) the effect of income inequality on violent crime is mediated by its effect on social capital.

Section snippets

Measurement of poverty and income inequality

Poverty and household income data for each state were obtained from the 1990 U.S. Census Summary Tape File STF 3A. The poverty variable represents the percentage of households in a state that were considered to be below the federal poverty index. The federal poverty index is a wage-income based measure that does not include income from other sources, such as public assistance programs. The index is updated annually to reflect cost of living changes in the Consumer Price Index. In 1990, this

Relationship between income inequality and firearm violent crime

There was substantial variation in the degree of income inequality among the states. The overall RHI for the U.S. was 30.22%. New Hampshire (RHI=27.13%) had the least income inequality and Louisiana (RHI=34.05%) the greatest (Fig. 1). In the univariate regression analyses, RHI was significantly related to both the age-adjusted overall homicide (adjusted R2=0.54) and age-adjusted firearm homicide (adjusted R2=0.56) rates (Table 1). RHI was also significantly related to firearm assault (adjusted R

Discussion

The dominant current in the violence literature has sought to identify the individual factors that distinguish violent offenders from nonoffenders, whereas the purpose of the present study was to ask what societal characteristics — including income inequality, poverty, and social capital — predict differential rates of homicide and violent crime. More than half a century ago, Shaw and McKay (1942) argued in their classic work, Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas, that crime could be linked to

Conclusion

In his review of poverty and inequality and their relationship to crime, Braithwaite (1979) concluded that programs that simply targeted groups living in poverty would not have a significant impact on the overall crime rates in society. In contrast, he argued “that gross economic measures to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and the rest of the population” (pp. 231) are necessary if a significant reduction in crime is to be expected.

This view runs against the conventional violence

Acknowledgements

Kawachi and Kennedy are recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research.

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