Social capital and violence in the United States, 1974-1993

Sandro Galea, Adam Karpati and Bruce Kennedy

Social Science & Medicine, 2002, vol. 55, issue 8, 1373-1383

Abstract: Social capital is a characteristic of communities. Cross-sectional studies have shown that social capital is inversely associated with homicide and violent crime. We hypothesized that variations in social capital in US states over time can predict variations in regional homicide mortality both across and within time periods. We analyzed serial cross-sectional data for measures of social capital and age-adjusted homicide rates between 1974 and 1993. We used perception of social trust and per capita membership in voluntary associations, obtained from responses to the General Social Surveys, as the principal measures of social capital. We controlled for potential confounding by mean levels of income, urbanization, and region. Measures of perceived trust were strongly inversely correlated with homicide rates in an aggregate cross-sectional analysis (r=-0.51, p

Keywords: Social; capital; Homicide; Crime; Violence; Social; determinants; United; States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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