Racial Inequality and Black Homicide: An Analysis of Felony, Nonfelony and Total Rates

Abstract

Blau and Blau's (1982) suggestion that racial/ethnic economic inequality is an important source of violent crime has generated several empirical investigations during the last decade, but their findings have been inconclusive. In this study, we argue that their proposition should be tested for economically disadvantaged groups rather than for the total populations of political units. Consistent with recent reformulations of the frustration-aggression hypothesis, we predict that racial inequality has a stronger effect on nonfelony than felony homicide rates. Testing this idea for black homicide rates in SMS As, we indeed find that racial income inequality has a positive, significant influence on nonfelony homicides only. We conclude by recommending that future attempts at specifying the Blaus' model should focus on the perceptual dimension of the theory.