Predicting Approval of Violence: Do Contemporary and Historical Community Contexts Matter?

• In Event: Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Context Historical and Contemporary Issues

Abstract

The theoretical literature implies that several dimensions of community context may influence individuals’ approval of violence in various situations, but this has rarely been assessed in empirical research.  Studies of attitudes about violence tend to be narrower in outcome and scope, and when considering community conditions the focus has been on a specific city or cultural community.  In this study, I extend current research using data from the tract-identified version of the nationally-representative General Social Survey (GSS), to which I append data on theoretically-relevant neighborhood and county attributes from several sources.  Integrating insights from differential social organization and structural strain theories, I investigate the impact of neighborhood structural disadvantage, violence rates, and county-level historical lynching patterns on contemporary attitudes about violence.  The implications for current knowledge about community effects and the factors associated with violence approval are discussed.

Author

• Amanda R. Eliades, The Pennsylvania State University