Lethal Violence: A Global View on Homicide

As the most serious crime, homicide is both relevant and suitable for cross-national comparisons. The global homicide rate of ca. 6 per 100,000 people is an average of hugely diverging national rates ranging from 0.25 in Singapore to ca. 100 in El Salvador. The validity of global homicide statistics suffers from various differences in definitions as well as reporting and registration processes. Both criminal justice and causes of death statistics are used by the World Health Organization to construct rates, yet these are available only for a minority of countries. An overview on homicide in history and non-state societies shows that violence levels were considerably higher compared to those in today’s developed world and have dropped dramatically in Europe and North America during the early modern period. The rates first increased and then declined between ca.1960 and today in most developed nations in a synchronized manner, hinting at common influences. In recent years, homicide trends have shown a polarizing pattern, with increasing rates in Latin America and decreasing rates in most other world regions, especially East Asia and the Pacific, where rates have fallen below the European average concurrent with rising scores on the Human Development Index. Except in Eastern Europe, the frequency of homicide is strongly linked to the use of firearms, which account for 44% of homicide cases worldwide. Longitudinal studies have produced robust evidence for the pivotal role of deprivation and inequality in fostering lethal violence and of social welfare policies in reducing it. Although the transition to democratic political systems seems to increase homicide rates temporarily, the legitimacy of state institutions and the suppression of corruption are connected to lower homicide rates. Because of conceptual and methodological problems, questions concerning the generalizability of effects across space and time remain. Nevertheless, the research findings are sufficiently robust to draw important conclusions for violence prevention: reductions in poverty and income inequality, investments in welfare policies and gender equality, and improvements in the legitimacy of state institutions will help to bring homicide rates down

How national contexts matter: a study of police-adolescent encounters in France and Germany

In a French-German study including a large survey of adolescents in four cities, we analyze the interaction patterns during stops. Based on the respondents’ reports of their last experience of a police stop/encounter, we look at the likelihood that they assessed the interaction as respectful or disrespectful, conflictual or even violent, and how either the police officers’ or their own behaviour contributed to this outcome. The comparative design of the survey allows us to examine differences in the institutional patterns of use of force during stops of adolescents by the French and German police (where, when, against which groups). Using multilevel regression analyses, we compare the individual and spatial predictors of disrespectful or violent interactions, in particular with regard to ethnicity and urban segregation in the two countries. While discrimination in the selection of targets is found in France, it is not in Germany. In addition, interactions are much more frequently reported as disrespectful and violent by French compared to German adolescents. These results align with previous research showing that France has a more confrontational policing pattern of work, with more stops, more racial profiling and more tensions during stops. We contend that an institutional theory of policing (ITP) is needed to account for the repeatedly found differences in how much force is used and how it relates to the use of stops and their modalities across the two states. We propose that ITP is made of the ‘pillars of institutional order’ as a theoretical framework for explaining those differences in police practices

The unequal spread of digital neighbourhood platforms in urban neighbourhoods: A multilevel analysis of socio-demographic predictors and their relation to neighbourhood social capital

Digital neighbourhood platforms (DNPs) – also called online neighbourhood networks or neighbourhood social networks – are still a relatively novel phenomenon, and little is known about their actual reach among citizens and about neighbourhood conditions which foster or impede their spread. We consider DNPs as a digital extension of conventional neighbourhood social capital and analyse their spread in comparison with the latter using a recent community survey in two large German cities with a probability sample of 2900 respondents in 139 neighbourhoods. The analysis is guided by the scholarly discussion on the potential of DNPs to reduce current inequalities in the distribution of social capital. The results showed that 18% of respondents in Cologne and 12% of respondents in Essen have used DNPs. Multilevel analyses revealed a strong negative association of neighbourhood ethnic diversity with user rates, in parallel to the same negative effect on conventional neighbourhood social capital. It is therefore reasonable to assume that pre-existing inequalities in social capital are replicated by DNPs. On the individual level, the use of DNPs was less dependent on strong social bonds than on conventional social capital. Comparing respondents who use DNPs to those who do not, the former group proves to be socially more connected, more trusting and more satisfied with their neighbourhoods

Kriminalität

Von der Armuts- zur Wohlstandskriminalität, von Todes- und Gefängnisstrafen zu Geld- und Bewährungsstrafen – Kriminalität und Strafverfolgung unterliegen ebenso dem sozialen Wandel wie andere gesellschaftliche Phänomene. Während die Jugend scheinbar immer krimineller wurde, ging die tödliche Gewalt in Deutschland langfristig deutlich zurück. Historische Kriminalstatistiken können vieles über die Entwicklung sozialer Probleme und die gesellschaftlichen Reaktionen verraten

Within-neighbourhood changes of collective efficacy—Longitudinal measurement invariance and association with changing ethnic diversity

In neighbourhood research, the concept of collective efficacy has been particularly successful in capturing key dimensions of the social fabric of communities, i.e. social cohesion and expectations for social control actions amongst residents. Yet, very few scholars have studied collective efficacy over time, looking at the social dynamics of neighbourhood development, and none has tested for longitudinal measurement invariance. We use a repeated cross-sectional survey of residents conducted in 2014 and 2020 in 139 neighbourhoods in Cologne and Essen (Germany) to analyse the measurement invariance of the scale collective efficacy. Applying multilevel CFA, previous analyses have shown that this scale has two separate latent dimensions on the individual level of respondents – social cohesion and informal social control – but just one latent dimension on the collective level of neighbourhoods (Gerstner et al., Social Indicators Research 144:1151–1177, 2019). We test for longitudinal measurement invariance of collective efficacy in the framework of multilevel CFA, and in a second step, explore the covarying changes of collective efficacy and sociodemographic indicators. We find scalar measurement invariance and only small changes of collective efficacy over time which, however, are significantly related to changes in ethnic diversity: increases in ethnic diversity are associated with slight decreases in collective efficacy, supporting both classic social disorganization theory as well as Robert Putnam’s ‘hunkering down’ hypothesis

Old age and fear of crime: cross-national evidence for a decreased impact of neighbourhood disadvantage in older age

Fear of crime among older people has been a frequent topic in ageing research, criminology and urban studies. The ‘environmental docility hypothesis’ assumes that older people are more vulnerable to adverse neighbourhood conditions than younger age groups. Yet, few studies have tested this influential hypothesis using samples of respondents covering the complete adult lifespan. Looking at fear of crime, we investigated the person–environment interaction of age and neighbourhood disadvantage, using two independent surveys comprising 12,620 respondents aged 25–90 years residing in 435 neighbourhoods in four cities in Germany and Australia. We used multi-level analysis and cross-level interactions to model age-differential effects of neighbourhood disadvantage on fear. Contrary to the hypothesis, we found a weakening of neighbourhood effects on fear with age. The strong effect of neighbourhood disadvantage on fear of crime dropped by around half from the youngest (25 years) to the oldest age (90 years) in both countries. Younger people were almost as fearful as older people in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, but older people were considerably more fearful than younger ages in better-off neighbourhoods. We found limited empirical support for the assumption that this diminished association between neighbourhood disadvantage and fear can be explained by the stronger neighbourhood attachment of older people. The limitations of the analysis and potential future directions of research are discussed

In Their Own Hands: Young People and Self-Justice Retaliation in Germany

Strong and viable modern states have limited the use of private force to narrowly-defined situations of self-defense. Yet, evidence from crime surveys shows that a significant proportion of violent and property crimes is not reported to police. Instead of calling the police, people either take no action or employ a variety of mechanisms, including retaliation, to settle disputes. Drawing on data from a survey of 2,921 young people in two German cities, we investigate the propensity of adolescents to resort to self-justice retaliation. The results show widespread propensity to engage in retaliatory actions, particularly among adolescent males of low socio-economic status. Further, attitudes to the police, unsupervised routine activities, and delinquency-related variables were the most influential correlates of propensity to engage in retaliatory actions. </jats:p