Economic Inequality, Family Disruption, and Urban Black Violence: Cities as Units of Stratification and Social Control

Edward S. Shihadeh, Darrell J. Steffensmeier

1994-12-01articleSocial Forces287 citationsclosed

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Crime Patterns and Interventions Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Abstract

We examine the city-level relationship between income inequality, family disruption, and rates of violent crime among blacks by viewing communities as units of both stratification and social control The former emphasizes socioeconomic variables, such as inequality, while the latter stresses social disorganization variables such as family disruption as determinants of violent crime. We find that income stratification within black communities (black-to-black inequality) has a strong positive effect on the rates of black violence, but the effect is indirect; income inequality increases family disruption, which elevates the rates of black violence. We argue that using a racially bounded indicator of income inequality has greater theoretical parsimony than using a measure of racial inequality (white-to-black) or overall (total) inequality. The failure in previous research both to employ theoretically appropriate measures of income inequality and to consider indirect as well as direct effects of inequality may explain why the evidence of a relationship between inequality and crime has been weak in previous studies.

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