title: Governance and Regional Variation of Homicide Rates: Evidence From Cross-National Data.
abstract: Criminological theories of cross-national studies of homicide have underestimated the effects of quality governance of liberal democracy and region. Data sets from several sources are combined and a comprehensive model of homicide is proposed. Results of the spatial regression model, which controls for the effect of spatial autocorrelation, show that quality governance, human development, economic inequality, and ethnic heterogeneity are statistically significant in predicting homicide. In addition, regions of Latin America and non-Muslim Sub-Saharan Africa have significantly higher rates of homicides ceteris paribus while the effects of East Asian countries and Islamic societies are not statistically significant. These findings are consistent with the expectation of the new modernization and regional theories.
authors.affiliation: University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada Liqun.cao@uoit.ca.|Hunan University, China, and Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
authors.forename: Liqun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D004467:Economics; D005006:Ethnicity; D006076:Government; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D015233:Models, Statistical
keywords: ethnic heterogeneity; governance of liberal democracy; homicide; human development; inequality; region; spatial autocorrelation