How the west was one: Explaining the similarities in racespecific homicide rates in the west and south

This research investigates theimpact ofstructural conditions onrates ofblack andwhite homicidefordifferent regions oftheu.s. Particularattention isgiven to theclaim that significant changes have occurred in regional patterns ofhomicide, shifting attention awayfrom theSouth andtoward thewestern region. Based onrace-specific homicide rates for u.s. cities in 1990, ourresearch provides statistical evidence ofsimilarities in mean race-specific homicide rates for the southern andwestern regions. While this finding suggests greater comparability, further exploration reveals thatthe similarities in regional homicide rates cannot be attributed to like circumstances or conditions once methodological pursuits of invariant structural covariates in research prevail. Given the presence of unique structural disadvantages in each of these regions, we offer explanations forthedifferences in structural andcultural forces thatcontribute to the race-specific homicide rates. Regional patterns in violence have been one of the most commonly studied phenomena in criminological history. In one form or another, studies have either incorporated region as a measure in order to control for potential regional differences in offending and victimization rates or directly examined region for the purpose ofexplaining why there are vast regional differencesin offending over time. ' Regardless of its application in criminological studies, there has been n