M. Dwayne Smith

Deterrence, Poverty, and Type of Homicide

The assumption that homicide is a unidimensional phenomenon has rarely been questioned in empirical research. Using newly available data, this analysis classifies homicide into two types, primary and nonprimary, based on the victim/offender relationship. Two models that have appeared in the literature are replicated, utilizing this classificatory scheme. State primary-homicide rates are found to be related to poverty and to the percentage of the population aged 20-34, while nonprimary homicide rates are significantly related only to the percentage of the state living in urban areas. Replication of the original models demonstrates that the failure to classify homicides in this manner results in the incorrect assessment of the relative size and importance of the various predictors of homicide included in these models.

Macroeconomic and Social-Control Policy Influences on Crime Rate Changes, 1948-1985

Informed by the insights of political economy, this study investigates the often-presumed though empirically elusive relationship between societal economic distress and crime. In a social-indicators model, we argue for including both unemployment and inflation rates as measures of the overall health of the economy. We contend that in the face of these destabilizing economic conditions, government engages in dualistic social control policies. On one hand, it attempts to discourage antisocial behavior via placative forms of control and, on the other, it exercises its deterrent capacities. Using annual time-series data for the period 1948-1985, we employ dynamic modeling techniques to examine these influences on annual fluctuations in rates of homicide, robbery, and burglary. The results yield mixed support for the hypothesized relationships, with the posited model gaining potency as we move from explaining more violent to less violent offenses. Finally, these findings hold when we control for changes in two other theoretically important influences: criminal opportunity and the age structure of the population. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1988. Copyright

Gender Inequality and Rates of Female Homicide Victimization Across U.S. Cities

This study adds to a growing body of literature that explores patterns and correlates of homicide among specific populations within the United States. Seeking to improve our understanding of correlates of female homicide, the authors explore the possibility that female victimization rates are influenced by conditions of sex-based inequality. Using data from 177 central cities of the United States, they develop a model that tests separately, and in combination, the effects of seven sociodemographic variables and six measures of differences in male and female socioeconomic status. The authors find that the social-structural model is neither altered nor improved by inclusion of the inequality variables. Further, no single inequality variable is found to be a statistically significant predictor of female homicide rates when controlling for social-structural effects. Based on these results, they find little support for a gender inequality/female homicide connection.

Crime and Unemployment: Effects across Age and Race Categories

Despite numerous studies, the nature of the unemployment-crime relationship remains controversial. The relationship should be clearer for some segments of the population than for others, but is obscured by the use of general population data. Exploring this possibility through the use of a model developed by Cantor and Land (1985), a time-series analysis is conducted to determine relationships among age- and race-specific rates of unemployment and corresponding rates of arrests for homicide, robbery, and burglary for the United States during the period 1959–1987. Negative criminal opportunity-related and positive criminal motivation-related effects are found at the aggregate level, but these vary among age groups and are more evident for white than for African American arrest rates. Further, these effects hold even when controlling for the potential influence of other variables identified in recent research as having an impact on the unemployment-crime relationship.

Patterns of discrimination in assessments of the death penalty: The case of Louisiana

This work contributes to a growing body of literature by analyzing patterns of capital punishment sentencing in Louisiana during the post-Furman era. The specific focus of the study was to determine whether patterns of discrimination by race continue to persist. A logit model was utilized with data consisting of 504 cases of homicide eligible for capital punishment, fifty-three of which had been assigned the death penalty. Results indicated that a pattern of discrimination by race of victim, but not by race of offender, existed, even when a number of legal and extra-legal factors were controlled. In addition, an effect for sex of the victim was noted. Another pattern found, that of capriciousness, is also discussed.

Framing Deadly Domestic Violence: Why the Media’s Spin Matters in Newspaper Coverage of Femicide

The news media play a substantial role in shaping society’s perceptions of social issues, including domestic violence. However, minimal research has been conducted to examine whether news media frame stories of femicide within the context of domestic violence. Using frame analysis, the present research compares newspaper articles representing 113 cases of femicide that define the murder as domestic violence to a random sample of 113 cases without coverage defining the femicide as domestic violence. Findings indicate that both groups are represented by multiple frames, including a previously unidentified frame that places the femicide in the context of domestic violence as a social problem.

Exploring News Coverage of Femicide: Does Reporting the News Add Insult to Injury?

The news media help shape society’s perception of social problems as well as public opinion of victims and offenders. Currently, there is extensive research devoted to the media’s portrayal of violence against women but very little examination of femicide (for purposes of this research, defined as the murder of female intimate partners). Using newspaper coverage of femicide cases across the state of North Carolina over a 6-year period (995 articles representing 299 cases), the current study examines the news media’s use of direct and indirect victim-blaming language, the sources cited in femicide reporting, and whether femicide cases are contextualized as an individual problem or within the broader social issue of intimate partner violence (IPV). Consistent with previous research, findings indicate that public sources (i.e., law enforcement) were the most commonly cited sources of information in news coverage of femicide compared to private sources (i.e., friends and family); however, domestic violence experts are cited more often than in prior studies. In addition, direct and indirect victim-blaming language is not as pervasive as previous research has suggested. Finally, the percentage of articles that contextualized the femicide as IPV is lower than that found in prior studies of femicide. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.

Poverty, Inequality, and Theories of Forcible Rape

This study provides an empirical assessment of theories of rape that suggest that conditions of poverty and inequality account for differences in rates of rape among communities in the United States. To compensate for problems of statistical unreliability, 1980 data for 88 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) with extremely high or low rates of rape are analyzed. Poverty, but not racial economic inequality, is found to partially account for differences in these communities. However, other demographic factors, most notably the percentage of the community divorced or separated, are found to be even more viable predictors of high rape rates.

Variations in Correlates of Race-Specific Urban Homicide Rates*

Recent research has begun to address patterns and causes of homicide among African Americans, the population most at risk as victims and offenders. Seeking to add to this literature, a race-specific analysis of homicide rates and macrostructural variables among U.S. central cities is performed. A variety of factors from past homicide studies serve to predict white rates of homicide, allowing for the development of a broad profile of white communities with low rates of homicides. In contrast, only two factors (population size and residential segregation) are statistically-significant predictors of homicide rates among African Americans, resulting in an essentially non-descriptive community profile. The results suggest that the two groups may be subject to different social forces, and the ensuing discussion poses the possibility that understanding differences in homicide rates among African-American communities may require an incorporation of factors not normally considered in homicide research.

Feminists and traditionalists: An attitudinal comparison

Comparisons are made between self-identified feminists and traditionalists on an attitudinal inventory scale. Feminists are found to display a more consistent sex-role ideology as measured by inter-item consistency. Traditionalists believe in labor and political equality, but differ from feminists in regard to relations with men and notions of domestic roles. The findings suggest that a more consistent sex-role ideology among women should occur with increased feminist identification. However, stereotypes and misunderstandings concerning feminism may prevent this development among many women.