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Deindustrialization, Female‐Headed Families, and Black and White Juvenile Homicide Rates, 1970‐1990
Author(s) -
Ousey Graham C.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.2000.tb00917.x
Subject(s) - deindustrialization , homicide , juvenile , nexus (standard) , criminology , extant taxon , sociology , white (mutation) , demographic economics , poison control , economics , suicide prevention , economy , ecology , biology , medicine , biochemistry , environmental health , evolutionary biology , computer science , gene , embedded system
Recent research in urban sociology posits that the proliferation of female‐headed families in American cities is a result of declining economic prospects due to profound changes in the structure of the urban economy. Meanwhile, macro‐level theory and research in criminology suggest that an association exists between family structure and rates of lethal violence among juveniles. Given these two streams of sociological thought, there is good reason to expect that increases in juvenile homicide rates since 1970 may be due, in part, to changes in the structure of the economy and the family during the 1970 to 1990 period. However, the nexus between deindustrialization, female‐headed families, and juvenile homicide has received little attention in extant research. The objective of the current study is to remedy this gap in the literature by bringing together ideas about deindustrialization and female headship in an attempt to explain city‐level changes in Black and White juvenile homicide rates between 1970 and 1990. In particular, the research investigates the hypothesis that a decline in the manufacturing base of cities increased rates of female headship and thereby indirectly raised homicide rates. Race differences in the hypothesized structural relationships also are examined.