Homicide A Sociological Explanation

by Beeghley, Leonard

• ISBN13: 9780847694730
• ISBN10: 0847694739
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-07
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Echoing Durkheim's Suicide, this book focuses on one important phenomenon to explain larger currents in American society. Leonard Beeghley examines the historical and cross-national dimensions of homicides and evaluates previous attempts to explain it. He finds the sources of America's murder rate in the greater availability of guns, the expansion of illegal drug markets, greater racial discrimination, more exposure to violence, and sharper economic inequalities. He deftly blends the evidence related to each of these factors into a well-reasoned sociological analysis of the nature of American society.

Author Biography

Leonard Beeghley is professor of sociology at the University of Florida

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Homicide as a Routine Event	p. 1
We Have a Problem	p. 2
Some Consequences of Homicide	p. 7
Sociology and Homicide	p. 12
Modernity and Homicide	p. 14
Notes	p. 17
How to Understand Homicide	p. 19
Cross-National and Historical Dimensions of Homicide	p. 21
Levels of Analysis and Homicide	p. 23
Social Psychological Explanations of Homicide	p. 24
Structural Explanations of Homicide	p. 28
Explaining the Homicide Rate	p. 33
The Dilemma of Change	p. 37
Notes	p. 38
Homicide in Cross-National and Historical Perspective	p. 41
A Short History of Homicide in Europe	p. 42
Cross-National Homicide Rates Today	p. 46
Homicide in the United states from Colonial Times to 1900	p. 49
Homicide in the United States from 1900 to the Present	p. 60
Two Variants of Homicide in the United States	p. 65
Homicide and Region	p. 65
Homicide and Race	p. 70
Modernity, Social Class, and Homicide	p. 69
Notes	p. 74
The American Dream and Homicide: A Critique	p. 79
The Thesis and Its Empirical Basis	p. 81
An Institutional-Anomie Explanation of Serious Crime	p. 84
Some Critical Comments	p. 91
Anomie, Modernity, and Homicide	p. 96
Building on the Messner/Rosenfeld Strategy	p. 99
Notes	p. 101
Social Structure and Homicide	p. 103
The Greater Availability of Guns	p. 107
Guns versus Other Weapons	p. 108
A Brief History of Guns and Homicide in America	p. 111
How Many Guns in America?	p. 116
The Coincidence Hypothesis	p. 120
Gun Availability and the Rate of Homicide	p. 123
Conclusion	p. 128
The Expansion of Illegal Drug Markets	p. 129
Greater Racial and Ethnic Discrimination	p. 135
Greater Exposure to Violence	p. 141
The Mass Media	p. 141
The Family	p. 144
The Neighborhood	p. 146
The Government	p. 147
Greater Economic Inequality	p. 149
Understanding Homicide	p. 152
Notes	p. 156
Is Change Possible?	p. 163
Sociology and Social Change	p. 166
Two Illustrations	p. 168
Gun Availability	p. 169
Illegal Drug Markets	p. 181
Concluding Comments	p. 187
Notes	p. 188
References	p. 191
Index	p. 215
About the Author	p. 225
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