Structural Racism and Criminal Violence: An Analysis of State-Level Variation in Homicide

Abstract

We advance a structural racism approach to understanding the variation in homicide across the U.S. states. We conceptualize structural racism by juxtaposing the conditions for Blacks with those for Whites across multiple domains. We also include two ideological beliefs, racial resentments and Whites perceptions that their racialized social status is threatened by minority gains. The results show that higher Black homicide rates are associated with greater exposure to structural racism and that states with more Whites who harbor racial resentments have higher rates of Black homicides. We also found that states with more Whites who feel that their status is threatened exhibit higher rates of White homicides. However, the results reveal that structural racism exhibits a non-significant association with White homicide rates. We conclude that the challenge going forward is to develop strategies that can undo the oppression of Blacks without enhancing attitudes of Whites that promote criminality.