Income Inequality and Violent Crime Key Points

As early as 1993 an analysis of 34 studies of violent crime concluded that there was a robust tendency for rates of violence to be higher in more unequal societies [1]. In 1997, Messner and Rosenfeld [3] said “A finding that has emerged with remarkable consistency is that high rates of homicide tend to accompany high levels of inequality in the distribution of income.” Two years later in a study of 50 countries, Lee and Bankston [4] concluded that “. . . economic inequality is positively and significantly related to rates of homicide despite an extensive list of conceptually relevant controls.” Since then the evidence that violence is higher in countries with bigger income differences between rich and poor has not only continued to accumulate, but has also continued to be ignored by governments.