MURDER RATESHow America's Elites May Hold the Key to Lowering Murder Rates
New crime laws, police funding and similar efforts may have some effect on homicide rates in the United States – but the biggest impact will come from the actions of our political and economic elites, historian and author of American Homicide writes in new report.
New crime laws, police funding and similar efforts may have some effect on homicide rates in the United States – but the biggest impact will come from the actions of our political and economic elites.
That’s the conclusion of historian Randolph Roth, author of the 2009 book American Homicide, in a new report he wrote for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Roth, who is a professor of history at The Ohio State University, provides evidence that homicide rates are linked to how citizens feel about the legitimacy of government and their sense of connectedness with their fellow citizens.
Right now, the United States is at a key point, Roth said.
“Over the past 450 years in the Western world, political stability has been the most powerful correlate of high homicide rates. The return of political stability could, if it continues over the next few years, lower our nation’s homicide rate,” Roth wrote in the Guggenheim report.
“What may matter most, however, is the behavior of America’s political and economic elites. They have the power, for good or ill, over the homicide rate.”
These elites include the wealthiest Americans, leaders of top corporations and institutions, and national and state political leaders of both parties, Roth said.
The new report is titled “Government Legitimacy, Social Solidarity, and American Homicide in Historical Perspective.”
The theory that homicide rates are driven by feelings and beliefs that people have toward the government and their fellow citizens may seem strange at first, Roth said. But as he details in his book and new report, that theory fits the evidence much better than the usual theories revolving around guns, poverty, drugs, race or a permissive justice system.
The key is to ensure that people feel empowered, included in their community, believe they matter to the people around them, and feel the government will protect them and their family.
“Small slights and disagreements don’t bother me as much as they might if I felt powerless in society, if I felt I couldn’t get a fair shake from my government, and if I felt alienated from my neighbors,” Roth writes in the report.
“Small disagreements and indignities that I might otherwise brush off as insignificant might enrage me and could even lead to violence.”
Roth’s research shows that the key to low homicide rates is successful nation building. And nation building is a continuous process – it is not something that can be declared complete at any point in time, he said.
