Researchers disagree on the direction of the relationship between educational development and homicide in developing countries. They also disagree on the criminological theory that best explains the relationship. Also, dependable quantitative studies are absent from the literature. In the present study, multiple regression analysis shows a positive relationship between these variables in sub-Saharan Africa, despite controls for geographic region, labor force participation, gross domestic product, population size, urbanization, and the age structure of the population. The results are unfavorable to two anomie/strain explanations and one social control explanation but provide support for another social control explanation.
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