Crutchfield R. Labor stratification and violent crime. Social Forces 1989; 68: 489-512

This study focuses on Seattle, Washington, to tease out the factors related to poverty and income inequality associated with violent crime as measured by census tracts. Levels of unemployment, the distribution of work in the primary occupations (involved in manufacturing and distribution of goods, professions, managers and skilled craft workers), and secondary occupations (on the periphery of the economy, such as waiters, waitresses, domestic servants, security guards, those considered unstable and poorly paid) are related to the relationships of violent crime and income inequality or poverty. The data argue for the stratification of labor producing the observed relationship between poverty, income inequality and violent crime. Homicide rates, however, are independently related to income inequality, that is they persist when the above conditions of employment are controlled for. 

Abstract

This paper uses dual labor market theory to examine the relationships between the structure of labor in census tracts, economic indicators, and violent crime. It tests the thesis that relationships between poverty, income inequality, and violent crime are affected by the distribution of workers in the primary and secondary sectors of the labor market. The results indicate that when three measures of the conditions of employment are controlled, the association between the poverty rate and the overall violent crime index is reduced, and that the relationship between income inequality and violent crime rates is limited to murder rates. The implications of these results for future research on social economy and violent crime are discussed.

Keywords

• city
• homicide
• income inequality
• labor
• race
• unemployment
• violent crime