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A TEST OF THE BLACK SUBCULTURE OF VIOLENCE THESIS: A RESEARCH NOTE *
Author(s) -
CaO LIQUN,
ADAMS ANTHONY,
JENSEN VICKIE J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1997.tb00880.x
Subject(s) - subculture (biology) , ceteris paribus , offensive , white (mutation) , test (biology) , social psychology , psychology , criminology , population , demography , sociology , engineering , paleontology , philosophy , biochemistry , botany , chemistry , epistemology , operations research , gene , biology
We use data from the General Social Survey (1983 to 1991) to test Wolfgang and Ferracuti's hypothesis that violent values are widespread among African‐Americans. Contrary to the expectations of the black subculture of violence thesis, our analyses indicate that white males are significantly more likely than blacks to express violent tendencies in defensive situations and that there is no significant difference between white and black males in offensive situations, ceteris paribus. Thus, we have rejected, within the limitations of our data, the hypothesis that a unique subculture of violence exists among the general population of African‐Americans in the United States.