10 academic sources about the topic (Why is America so violent?) *Address all 10 academic sources in the literature review *What have they added to the literature? *End literature review with "What ha
Roger Lewis
September 9, 2019
CJA 651: Quantitative Methods in CJ
Bibliographies
Straus, M. (1990). Physical Violence in American Families. New York: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315126401
The two previous books on the National Family Violence surveys, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family (Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz, 1980) and Intimate Violence (Gelles and Straus, 1988), were written for the general public rather than a scholarly audience. These books in addition to presenting some of the main findings of the research reflected our personal commitment to contributing to reducing family violence. They were intended to reinforce public consciousness of the huge incidence of physical abuse of children and spouses, to make the public more aware of the consequences for physical and mental health of this violence, to show that the major cause of these tragedies is to be found in the nature of the American family and American society, and to make clear that it is within our power to change child abuse and spouse abuse. These publications have reached a wide audience and continue to do so. The findings have been reported in every major newspaper and on every major T V network. Both of us appear on television several times a year because our research has provided the best data available on the high rate of assaults on spouses and children. The book on the first survey is still in print nine years after publication. It seems reasonable to surmise that our two books have contributed to public awareness of and concern about family violence. The book on the 1975 survey is also widely used as a text. Nevertheless, both books leave a void because neither was intended to meet the needs of the research community. Since they were written for the general public, we could not adequately describe the analytical methods used to arrive at the findings; nor was it possible to present the qualifications and alternative theories and interpretations that are critical for the progress of research on family violence.
We attempted to address the needs of the scholarly community through papers in journals and through unpublished articles. These papers are a rich storehouse of knowledge on family violence and methods of studying family violence. However, they have appeared in many different journals, some of which are not easily obtainable, and others are unpublished. This book therefore brings together some of the most widely relevant of the published articles and 13 new chapters. It makes the storehouse of research findings and research methods accumulated during 13 years of intensive effort more readily accessible. It also makes that material more readable because the repetitive sections on the sample and other methodological details have been edited out of each chapter. In addition, presenting these papers in juxtaposition to each other and in a framework that highlights their underlying methodological and theoretical structure may help to clarify what has and has not been accomplished.
Craig McLean, Michael A. Long, Paul B. Stretesky, Michael J. Lynch & Steve Hall (2019) Exploring the Relationship between Neoliberalism and Homicide: A Cross-National Perspective,International Journal of Sociology, 49:1, 53-76, DOI: 10.1080/00207659.2018.1560981
Research has shown that neoliberal economic policies may increase violence. In this study we extend this logic to create a “neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis.” We test this hypothesis using two global measures of neoliberalism (the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the Index of Economic Freedom) and 2014 homicide rates for 142 nations. Regression analysis provides little support for the neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis using the global indexes. However, when examining factors that make up these indexes, we discover that as size of government and tax burden become more neoliberal across nations, homicide rates increase. A post hoc exploratory analysis suggests that the association between government size, spending, taxes, and homicide is largely indirect and manifests through economic inequality and poverty. That is, neoliberal government policies appear to increase poverty and inequality which, in turn, lead to higher rates of homicide. We situate our findings within the broader literature on neoliberalism and violence and suggest directions for future research.
Barber, N. (2006), Why is violent crime so common in the Americas?. Aggr. Behav., 32: 442-450. doi:10.1002/ab.20144
Violent crimes, including murders, rapes, and assaults are substantially higher in the Americas than other regions of the world. This study investigated the role of single parenthood ratios in accounting for this regional variation in violent crime of 39 countries using INTERPOL data. It pitted the prediction of parental investment (calling for a delayed relationship between single parenthood and crime) against a mating aggression hypothesis that predicted a contemporaneous effect. Regression analyses found that current single parenthood ratios were strongly and consistently predictive of violent crimes whereas single parenthood ratios 18 years earlier were not and this conclusion remained following controls for income inequality and the population sex ratio. The results indicate that the regional difference in violent crime is best explained in terms of mating competition rather than reduced parental investment.
Blau, J., & Blau, P. (1982). The Cost of Inequality: Metropolitan Structure and Violent Crime. American Sociological Review, 47(1), 114-129. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095046
The hypothesis tested is that variations in rates of urban criminal violence largely result from differences in racial inequality in socioeconomic conditions. Data on the 125 largest American metropolitan areas (SMSAs) are used to ascertain whether this hypothesis can account for three correlates of violent crime differently interpreted in the literature. Criminal violence is positively related to location in the South, which has been interpreted as the result of the Southern tradition of violence. It is positively related to the proportion of blacks in an SMSA, which has been interpreted as reflecting a subculture of violence in ghettos. And it is positively related to poverty, which has been interpreted as the emphasis on toughness and excitement in the culture of poverty. The analysis reveals that socioeconomic inequality between races, as well as economic inequality generally, increases rates of criminal violence, but once economic inequalities are controlled poverty no longer influences these rates, neither does Southern location, and the proportion of blacks in the population hardly does. These results imply that if there is a culture of violence, its roots are pronounced economic inequalities, especially if associated with ascribed position.
Wilbanks, W. (1985). Is Violent Crime Intraracial? Crime & Delinquency, 31(1), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128785031001007
The commonly accepted view that violent crime is intraracial as opposed to interracial is reexamined. Victim survey data on perceived race of offender are used to suggest that the issue of intraracial versus interracial crime should be examined from four perspectives: white offender's choice of victim (e.g., white or black); black offender's choice of victim; white victim's perception of race of offender; and black victim's perception of race of offender. A Detailed analysis of victimization survey data indicates that violent crime in the United States (robbery, assault, and rape) is intraracial from three perspectives (whites chose other whites as victims, whites were largely victimized by other whites, and blacks were largely victimized by other blacks). However, black offenders were more likely to choose white victims in robberies, assaults, and rapes. Tentative and alternative explanations for this previously unexamined fact of interracial crime are suggested.
McDonald, R., Jouriles, E. N., Ramisetty-Mikler, S., Caetano, R., & Green, C. E. (2006). Estimating the number of American children living in partner-violent families. Journal of Family Psychology, 20(1), 137-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.20.1.137
The number of American children living in partner-violent households was estimated from a nationally representative sample of 1,615 dual-parent households. Approximately 15.5 million American children were estimated to live in families in which partner violence had occurred at least once in the previous year, with 7 million estimated to live in families in which severe partner violence had occurred. The prevalence of partner violence was higher among couples with children than among couples without children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., . . . Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 151-173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018251
Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past meta-analyses; (b) cross-cultural comparisons; (c) longitudinal studies for all outcomes except physiological arousal; (d) conservative statistical controls; (e) multiple moderator analyses; and (f) sensitivity analyses. Social–cognitive models and cultural differences between Japan and Western countries were used to generate theory-based predictions. Meta-analyses yielded significant effects for all 6 outcome variables. The pattern of results for different outcomes and research designs (experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal) fit theoretical predictions well. The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior. Moderator analyses revealed significant research design effects, weak evidence of cultural differences in susceptibility and type of measurement effects, and no evidence of sex differences in susceptibility. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Campbell, m. C., vogel, m. And williams, j. (2015), historical contingencies and the evolving importance of race, violent crime, and region in explaining mass incarceration in the united states. Criminology, 53: 180-203. Doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12065
This article combines insights from historical research and quantitative analyses that have attempted to explain changes in incarceration rates in the United States. We use state‐level decennial data from 1970 to 2010 (N = 250) to test whether recent theoretical models derived from historical research that emphasize the importance of specific historical periods in shaping the relative importance of certain social and political factors explain imprisonment. Also drawing on historical work, we examine how these key determinants differed in Sunbelt states, that is, the states stretching across the nation's South from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, from the rest of the nation. Our findings suggest that the relative contributions of violent crime, minority composition, political ideology, and partisanship to imprisonment vary over time. We also extend our analysis beyond mass incarceration's rise to analyze how factors associated with prison expansion can explain its stabilization and contraction in the early twenty‐first century. Our findings suggest that most of the factors that best explained state incarceration rates in the prison boom era lost power once imprisonment stabilized and declined. We find considerable support for the importance of historical contingencies in shaping state‐level imprisonment trends, and our findings highlight the enduring importance of race in explaining incarceration.
Atwood, J. Brian (2003) "The Link Between Poverty and Violent Conflict," New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 19: Iss. 1, Article 10. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol19/iss1/10
The threat to the international system from the many forms of violent conflict, terrorism being the most prominent among them, is greater today than it was at the end of the twentieth century. This escalation of global conflict has been attributed to the breakup of the Soviet State, increasing ethnic tensions, weak governance at both the nation-state and international levels, and the rise of religious extremism. Each of these factors contributes to instability and the social tensions that lead to violence. It will be posited here that there is also a significant link between poverty and violent conflict, one that has been largely underestimated by national security analysts. I will argue that a strong correlation exists between conditions of underdevelopment and the various forms of conflict. This suggests that the failure to recognize the link between security and development has reduced the effective- ness of the more traditional methods of preventing or mitigating conflict, that is, the use of military force, diplomacy, intelligence sharing, and international law. Finally, I will discuss new development interventions and improved coordination and policy coherence measures to confront directly the conditions that produce violent conflict.
Goldstein, J. H. (Ed.). (1998). Why we watch: The attractions of violent entertainment. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.
Why We Watch offers a look at why we are drawn to depictions of violence and why there is so large a market for violent entertainment. This collection of essays examines the presence of violent imagery not just in contemporary America but across time, from classical antiquity to the present, and not only in film and television but in an array of cultural domains, including literature, religion, fairy tales, video games, children's toys, photojournalism, and sports. This book addresses a crucial but rarely considered aspect of the media-violence problem: Why is violent imagery so prevalent? The contributors acknowledge that violent imagery has saturated western cultures for millenia and aim to define what is distinctive about America's contemporary culture of violence. This book is intended for all who are concerned with the multiple points of access to violent representation in 1990s America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
