Social Altruism and Cross-National Homicide Rates

• In Event: International and Comparative Perspectives on Political Corruption, Violence and Genocide

Abstract

Social support theories suggest one theoretical mechanism through which social protection may be associated with cross-national homicide rates is social altruism. However, previous evidence does not show that social altruism, as measured by voluntary private donations to social support programs, is negatively associated with homicide victimization. The lack of support may be due to confounding of social altruism and social protection. I theorize there exists a continuum of social altruism, from the most altruistic to the least altruistic nations. I predict also that this measure will covary with measures of poverty and social protection and, when all three are included in a theoretical model, each measure will aid in understanding homicide victimization across nations. Utilizing the World Values Survey and European Values Survey, I constructed a social altruism continuum using confirmatory factor analysis. I utilized multiple statistical techniques to test hypotheses regarding the role of social altruism in understanding homicide victimization rates across nations. Results confirm that social altruism should be measured separately from social protection, as it has a unique negative effect on homicide victimization rates across nations.

Author

• Meghan Rogers, Indiana University