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STRUCTURAL COVARIATES OF U.S. COUNTY HOMICIDE RATES: INCORPORATING SPATIAL EFFECTS *
Author(s) -
BALLER ROBERT D.,
ANSELIN LUC,
MESSNER STEVEN F.,
DEANE GLENN,
HAWKINS DARNELL F.
Publication year - 2001
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.1745-9125.2001.tb00933.x
Subject(s) - homicide , covariate , geography , econometrics , similarity (geometry) , demography , statistics , poison control , injury prevention , economics , mathematics , medicine , sociology , computer science , environmental health , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics)
Spatial analysis is statistically and substantively important for macrolevel criminological inquiry. Using county‐level data for the decennial years in the 1960 to 1990 time period, we reexamine the impact of conventional structural covariates on homicide rates and explicitly model spatial effects. Important findings are: (1) homicide is strongly clustered in space; (2) this clustering cannot be completely explained by common measures of the structural similarity of neighboring counties; (3) noteworthy regional differences are observed in the effects of structural covariates on homicide rates; and (4) evidence consistent with a diffusion process for homicide is observed in the South throughout the 1960–1990 period.