Structure, Context, and Agency in the Reproduction of Black-on-Black Violence

Abstract

Violence has a substantial impact on morbidity and mortality within the African-American community. While certainly providing insight into macro- and micro-level forces, existing conceptualizations of the race and violence linkage are limited. We discuss these limitations and then offer a more comprehensive and integrated theoretical framework for understanding disparate patterns. Rather than reducing race-specific violence outcomes to social-psychological or deterministic structural factors, the theoretical model we construct suggests that violence among African Americans (and other subordinated racial/ethnic groups for that matter) is best conceived of as a dynamic and emergent phenomenon, patterned by the intersection of social structure, local context, and agency.