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This content addresses the possibility that Alcohol and homicide intertwine. Research was conducted by American criminologist Marvin Wolfgang, he found that when studying the social and behavioural aspects of homicide, 64% of homicide offenders and victims had been drinking alcohol. Wolfgang’s study helped stimulate a great deal of research into the causes behind homicide with the development of at least four major theories: Subculture of violence (Wolfgang and Firmicute 1967) Economic deprivation (Lofin and Hill 1974) Deterrence theory, especially involving capital punishment (Sellin 1967; Erlich 1975; Phillips 1980; Blumstein et al., 1978) However, none of the theories suggested that the role of alcohol might play in the explanation of homicide. However, Wolfgang suggested possible explanations into why alcohol and homicide intertwine. A likely role of alcohol in the causation of homicide is that alcohol can drive and sustain homicidal ideations. Alcohol could explain the relationships between geographic regions and homicide rates. Living in South America may lead to a distinct pattern of alcohol consumption, which in turn could help to explain the region’s traditionally high homicide rates. It may be that analysis did show a relationship between social support and crime rates does in fact exist.
Alcohol consumption and poverty rates interact which could also explain the regions traditionally high homicide rates. This distinction however has little to no impact on the interpretation of the effect of alcohol on homicide but the understanding of the effects of regional subculture, poverty or lifestyle. Wolfgang lacks supporting evidence to back his theories within this book. Consequently, alcohol and homicide appear to be related because of the influence of a third variable that has been excluded from consideration. The use of alcohol and criminal activity are incidental to one another, such that both occur in situations where expectations for behaviour have been removed or modified. Evidence suggest that this theory isn’t credible and lacks sufficient concepts in underpinning this theory.
This article addresses macrolevel theories of Homicide particularly the social theory. This theory draws from Braithwaite’s (1989) theory of reintegrative shaming, Coleman’s (1990) discussion of social capital, Cullen’s (1994) development of social support as an organising concept for criminology, Messner and Rosenfeld's (1997) institutional anomie theory, and Chamlin and Cochran's (1997) discussion and empirical test of “social altruism” theory. Each of these theories discuss the proposition that communities to nations vary in their degree of cohesiveness, support, shared values and willingness to come to the aid of those in need (Bellah et al., 1985, Cullen & Wright, 1997, Etzioni, 1993, Sandel, 1982, Walzer, 1983.) It’s the variation in levels of social support that are assumed to be related to variation in crime. (Barrera & Li, 1996, Sampson et al., 1997, Timko & Moos, 1996, Wilson, 1987.) These properties of social aggregates have been labelled as ‘social support’ and as ‘social altruism’. The research conducted, composed of 46 nations covering the time period of 1989-1995. The dependent variable being violent crime using each nation’s homicide rate (homicides per 100,000 citizens). The independent variables being Social Support measures: the percent of the nations GDP spent on health care and the percent of the GDP spent on public education. Structural covariates were included to as statistical controls to isolate the effects of the social support index on homicide rates. The analysis did show a relationship between social support and crime rates does in fact exist.
The information and data representations, however, were overwhelming. The article used a large amount of professional jargon making it hard for readers to understand the statistics and results of the research which could have been used for as evidence to support this theory.
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