The Inter-connected Influences of Income Inequality and Patriarchy on International Variations of Homicide Rates

• In Event: Cross-National Examinations of Culture, Disorganization, and Anomie

Abstract

Over the last few decades studies have analyzed the link between levels of gender inequality in a society and rates of violence against women. The results from these studies have been contradictory, that is, showing gender inequality to be associated with either increased or decreased violence against women. International studies on homicides in general have found a robust relationship between income inequality and serious violence. Countries with a large gap between the rich and the poor tend to have high rates of violence.

There are theoretical and empirical reasons to believe that these two fields of study are interconnected. Studies looking specifically on the link between income inequality and gender inequality and the influence on serious violence are scarce. There are some indications in the literature that economic stratification in society as whole increases violence, because income inequality is related to patriarchal ideology (e.g. the subculture of violence literature).

The current study uses data from international organizations (e.g. United Nations, WHO, World Value Survey) and tests several models of the direct and indirect (mediation and moderation) relationship between income inequality, measures of both structural gender inequality and patriarchal ideology and country level homicide rates.

Authors

• Margret Valdimarsdottir, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Rosemary Barberet, John Jay College of Criminal Justice