Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2024-11
The Influence of Racial Minorities and Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Estimation of Homicide Rates in the Northeast Region of Brazil: Implications for Social Disorganization Theory in the Global South
Using social disorganization theory, the present study considers the concentration of racial minorities and the degree of ethnic heterogeneity to provide an estimation of homicide rates in the Northeast region of Brazil. Three hypotheses were considered: (1) there is a positive association between homicides and ethnic heterogeneity and black/indigenous populations, (2) the magnitude of ethnic heterogeneity is greater than race/minority groups on homicides, and (3) metropolitan regions will be associated with an increase in homicides. Through spatial modelling techniques, results indicate the plausibility of first and third hypotheses. Implications for homicide prevention and social disorganization theory in global south are discussed.
AdekoyaA. F.RazakN. A. A. (2020). Effects of ethnic diversity and poverty on crime rate in Nigeria. ESUT Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 1–20.
2.
AndresenM. A. (2006). A spatial analysis of crime in Vancouver, British Columbia: A synthesis of social disorganization and routine activity theory. The Canadian Geographer, 50(4), 487–502. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.2006.00159.x
3.
AndresenM. A.HaO. K. (2020). Spatially varying relationships between immigration measures and property crime types in vancouver census tracts, 2016. The British Journal of Criminology, 60(5), 1342–1367. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaa029
4.
AnselinL. (1998). Exploratory spatial data analysis in a geocomputational environment. Geocomputation: A Primer. Wiley.
5.
AraújoE. M. D.CostaM. D. C.N.OliveiraN. F. D.SantanaF. D. S.BarretoM. L.HoganV.AraújoT. M. D. (2010). Spatial distribution of mortality by homicide and social inequalities according to race/skin color in an intra-urban Brazilian space. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia, 13(4), 549–560. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1415-790X2010000400001
BachmanJ. G.WallaceJ. MJrMalleyP. M.JohnstonL. D.KurthC. L.NeighborsH. W. (1991). Racial/Ethnic differences in smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use among American high school seniors, 1976-89. American Journal of Public Health, 81(3), 372–377. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.81.3.372
8.
BaileyS. R.LovemanM.MunizJ. O. (2013). Measures of “Race” and the analysis of racial inequality in Brazil. Social Science Research, 42(1), 106–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.06.006
9.
BlauP. M. (1977). Macrosociological theory of social structure. The American Journal of Sociology, 83(1), 26–54.
10.
BowenM. L. (2010). The struggle for black land rights in Brazil: An insider’s view on quilombos and the quilombo land movement. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 3(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2010.481939
11.
BraithwaiteJ. (1979). Inequality, Crime and Public Policy(Routledge Revivals). Routledge.
12.
BreetzkeG. D. (2010). Modeling violent crime rates: A test of social disorganization in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38(4), 446–452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.013
13.
BruinsmaG. J.PauwelsL. J.WeermanF. M.BernascoW. (2013). Social disorganization, social capital, collective efficacy and the spatial distribution of crime and offenders: An empirical test of six neighbourhood models for a Dutch city. British Journal of Criminology, 53(5), 942–963. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azt030
14.
BrunsdonC.FotheringhamA. S.CharltonM. E. (1996). Geographically weighted regression: A method for exploring spatial nonstationarity. Geographical Analysis, 28(4), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1538-4632.1996.tb00936.x
CaldeiraT. P. (2000). City of walls: Crime, segregation, and citizenship in São Paulo. University of California Press.
17.
CanoI. (2010). Racial bias in police use of lethal force in Brazil. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 11(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614260802586350
18.
CeccatoV.MeloS. N.KahnT. (2018). Trends and patterns of police-related deaths in Brazil. In CarringtonK.HoggR.ScottJ.SozzoM. (Eds.), The palgrave handbook of criminology and the global south (pp. 521–550). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
ChamberlainA. W.HippJ. R. (2015). It’s all relative: Concentrated disadvantage within and across neighborhoods and communities, and the consequences for neighborhood crime. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43(6), 431–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2015.08.004
21.
ChoS.LeeY. H.HarperS. B. (2021). Testing the systemic model of social disorganization theory in South Korean neighborhoods: A latent class growth analysis approach to specifying pathways to homicide. Homicide studies, 25(2), 139–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767920941564
22.
CunhaM. C. (2013). Índios no Brasil: história, direitos e cidadania. Editora Companhia das Letras.
23.
DaveD. M.FriedsonA. I.MatsuzawaK.SabiaJ. J.SaffordS. (2020). Black lives matter protests, social distancing, and COVID-19 (No. w27408). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27408
24.
DavisM. (2006). Planet of slums. Verso.
25.
EmerickN. A.CurryT. R.CollinsT. W.Fernando RodriguezS. (2014). Homicide and social disorganization on the border: Implications for Latino and immigrant populations. Social Science Quarterly, 95(2), 360–379. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12051
26.
FernandesF. (1978). A integração do negro na sociedade de classes. Ática.
27.
FjeldeH.HultmanL.SchubigerL.CedermanL. E.HugS.SollenbergM. (2019). Introducing the ethnic one-sided violence dataset. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 38(1), 109–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894219863256
28.
FotheringhamA. S.BrunsdonC.CharltonM. (2003). Geographically weighted regression: The analysis of spatially varying relationships. John Wiley & Sons.
29.
FrenchJ. H. (2013). Rethinking police violence in Brazil: Unmasking the public secret of race. Latin American Politics and Society, 55(4), 161–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2013.00212.x
30.
GraifC.SampsonR. J. (2009). Spatial heterogeneity in the effects of immigration and diversity on neighborhood homicide rates. Homicide Studies, 13(3), 242–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767909336728
31.
GuimarãesA. S. A. (2002). Classes, raças e democracia. Editora 34.
32.
HeD.MessnerS. F. (2020). Social disorganization theory in contemporary China: A review of the evidence and directions for future research. Asian Journal of Criminology, 15(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-019-09291-2
33.
HippJ. R. (2007). Income inequality, race, and place: Does the distribution of race and class within neighborhoods affect crime rates?Criminology, 45(3), 665–697. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2007.00088.x
34.
IngramM. C.Marchesini da CostaM. (2017). A spatial analysis of homicide across Brazil’s municipalities. Homicide Studies, 21(2), 87–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767916666603
35.
IngramM. C.Marchesini da CostaM. (2019). Political geography of violence: Municipal politics and homicide in Brazil. World Development, 124, 104592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.06.016
LanierC.Huff-CorzineL. (2006). American Indian homicide: A county-level analysis utilizing social disorganization theory. Homicide Studies, 10(3), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767906288573
39.
LeeD. W.LeeD. S. (2020). Analysis of influential factors of violent crimes and building a spatial cluster in South Korea. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 13(3), 759–776. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-019-09327-1
40.
LimaS. R. R.BarretoR. C. S. (2015). O comportamento socioeconômico da Região Nordeste: do meio século XX ao século XXI[Conference session]. Salvador-Bahia: XI Encontro de Economia Baiana.
41.
LowenkampC. T.CullenF. T.PrattT. C. (2003). Replicating Sampson and Groves’s test of social disorganization theory: Revisiting a criminological classic. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 40(4), 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427803256077
42.
MeloS. N.AndresenM. A.MatiasL. F. (2017). Geography of crime in a Brazilian context: An application of social disorganization theory. Urban Geography, 38(10), 1550–1572. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1255920
43.
MarzbaliM. H.AbdullahA.IgnatiusJ.TilakiM. J. M. (2019). Ethnic relations, crime and disorder in urban neighbourhoods: Moderating role of neighbourhood type in Penang, Malaysia. Security Journal, 32(4), 476–500. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-019-00176-8
44.
MessnerS. F.AnselinL.BallerR. D.HawkinsD. F.DeaneG.TolnayS. E. (1999). The spatial patterning of county homicide rates: An application of exploratory spatial data analysis. Journal of Quantitative criminology, 15(4), 423–450. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007544208712
45.
MessnerS. F.GoldenR. M. (1992). Racial inequality and racially disaggregated homicide rates: An assessment of alternative theoretical explanations. Criminology, 30(3), 421–448. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01111.x
46.
MorenoffJ. D.SampsonR. J.RaudenbushS. W. (2001). Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology, 39(3), 517–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2001.tb00932.x
47.
NivetteA.PeresM. F. T. (2021). Social disorganization and urban homicide rates: A spatial-temporal analysis in São Paulo, Brazil 2000 to 2015. Homicide Studies, 26(3), 219–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211010883
48.
OjedokunU. A.TadeO.AderintoA. A. (2019). Trends and patterns of homicides arising from interpersonal violence in Nigeria (2006-2016). Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(17–18), 8456–8470. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519849687
49.
OpokoP. A.OluwatayoA. A. (2014). Trends in urbanisation: Implication for planning and low-income housing delivery in Lagos, Nigeria. Architecture Research, 4(1A), 15–26.
50.
Opoku-WareJ.Osei AkuokoK.Ofori-DuaK.Mensah DapaahJ. (2021). Modeling the structural effects of residential instability, family disruptions, and social support on neighborhood crime perceptions: A partial test of social disorganization theory. Deviant Behavior, 43(6), 743–763. . https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2021.1918033
PereiraD. V. S.MotaC. M. M.AndresenM. A. (2017a). Social disorganization and homicide in Recife, Brazil. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminologym, 61(14), 1570–1592. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X15623282
53.
PereiraD. V. S.MotaC. M. M.AndresenM. A. (2017b). The homicide drop in Recife, Brazil: A study of crime concentrations and spatial patterns. Homicide studies, 21(1), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767916634405
54.
PeresM. F. T.NivetteA. (2017). Social disorganization and homicide mortality rate trajectories in Brazil between 1991 and 2010. Social Science & Medicine, 190, 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.08.013
55.
PorterJ. R.PurserC. W. (2010). Social disorganization, marriage, and reported crime: A spatial econometrics examination of family formation and criminal offending. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38(5), 942–950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.06.011
QuickM.LiG.Brunton-SmithI. (2018). Crime-general and crime-specific spatial patterns: A multivariate spatial analysis of four crime types at the small-area scale. Journal of Criminal Justice, 58, 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.06.003
RossJ. I. (Ed.). (2000). Controlling state crime. Transaction Publishers.
60.
SampsonR. J.GrovesW. B. (1989). Community structure and crime: Testing social-disorganization theory. American Journal of Sociology, 94(4), 774–802.
61.
SampsonR. J.RaudenbushS. W.EarlsF. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277(5328), 918–924. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820902763079
62.
SampsonR. J.MorenoffJ. D.RaudenbushS. (2005). Social anatomy of racial and ethnic disparities in violence. American Journal of Public Health, 95(2), 224–232. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.037705
63.
SchreckC. J.McGloinJ. M.KirkD. S. (2009). On the origins of the violent neighborhood: A study of the nature and predictors of crime-type differentiation across Chicago neighborhoods. Justice Quarterly, 26(4), 771–794. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820902763079
64.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas. University of Chicago Press.
65.
SilvaB. F. A. (2014). Social disorganization and crime: Searching for the determinants of crime at the community level. Latin American Research Review, 49(3), 218–230.
66.
SilvaC.MeloS.SantosA.JuniorP. A.SatoS.SantiagoK.SáL. (2020). Spatial modeling for homicide rates estimation in Pernambuco State-Brazil. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 9(12), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9120740
TruzziB.LirioV. S.CerqueiraD. R.CoelhoD. S.CardosoL. C. (2021). Racial democracy and black victimization in Brazil. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 38(1), 13–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862211038448
70.
UmarF.JohnsonS. D.CheshireJ. A. (2021). Assessing the spatial concentration of urban crime: An insight from Nigeria. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 37, 605–624. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-019-09448-3
WhiteK.StuartF.MorrisseyS. L. (2020). Whose lives matter? Race, space, and the devaluation of homicide victims in minority communities. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 7(3), 333–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649220948184
75.
YeX.WuL. (2011). Analyzing the dynamics of homicide patterns in Chicago: ESDA and spatial panel approaches. Applied Geography, 31(2), 800–807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.08.006
76.
ZimmermanG. M.Miller-SmithA. (2022). The impact of anticipated, vicarious, and experienced racial and ethnic discrimination on depression and suicidal behavior among Chicago youth. Social Science Research, 101, 102623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102623
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
