Racial Patterns in Violence: City-Level Changes in Race, Crime and Urban Inequality

• In Event: Temporal Trends and Urban Violence: Enduring Patterns and New Challenges

Abstract

Although understanding of general homicide trends, particularly the post-1990 decline, has grown substantially over the past decade, relatively little is known about trends in racial group disparities in lethal violence rates. In a discussion at the 2016 ASC (titled, "Reassessing ‘Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality:’ Enduring and New Challenges in 21st Century America"), Sampson and Wilson highlighted a number of economic, social and governmental changes that may have contributed to changes in the racial gap in violence. Using data from large U.S. cities spanning 1980 to 2014, this study examines how between-race differences in homicide rates have changed over time and it considers the impact that changes in immigration, mass incarceration, poverty concentration, and police presence had on these race disparities in murder.

Authors

• Ashley Mancik, University of Delaware

• Karen F. Parker, University of Delaware

• Graham C. Ousey, College of William and Mary