INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING AND VIOLENCE - THE LINK BETWEEN ENTRY-LEVEL JOBS, ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION, AND BLACK-AND-WHITE HOMICIDE

Although low-skill, entry-level employment has facilitated the social mobility of central city populations, evidence confirms that these onc e plentiful jobs are disappearing This shift in the industrial structu re of central cities has been especially detrimental to the economic a nd social well-being of low-skill city residents and may be linked to the rates of violence in urban communities. Using racially disaggregat ed data from the census and the Uniform Crime Reports for central citi es in 1970 and 1990, we examine the direct and indirect relationship b etween the industrial structure of central cities and the rates of hom icide. The findings reveal that a decline in the access to low-skill j obs increases violence indirectly by first increasing economic depriva tion. We model these relationships fat racially disaggregated populati ons and find that the effects are similar for blacks and whites. The a nalysis supports a macro-social link between violence and urban indust rial restructuring in central cities.