Human Development, Gender Inequality and Violence

• In Event: Defining and Predicting Violence in Various Cultural Contexts

Abstract

This paper analyzes the global relationship between a variety of international indicators of economic and social development (e.g. United Nations Human Development Index, GINI Index, and Gender Inequality Index) and reported homicide and assault rates for countries. The relationship between development and especially gender equality is investigated. This is a structural level analysis. In order to identify which of the many correlates of violence are the best predictors of the levels of homicide, assault and domestic violence, multiple regression analysis was applied, with economic and social equality measures as the independent variables and the different measures of violence acting as the dependent variables. Strong positive correlations were found between gender inequality and rates of domestic violence and homicide.

Authors

• Paul C. Friday, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Qingli Meng, University of Northern Iowa