Interracial conflict and interracial homicide: Do political and economic rivalries explain white killings of blacks or black killings of whites?

What factors lead to interracial killings? Because racial conflict explanat ions have been overlooked in the previous literature, this article studies the determinants of disaggregated interracial killing rates in 165 U.S. cit ies by testing economic, political, and social control accounts. After hold ing the probability of interracial contacts and the total murder rate const ant, the results show that cities with a black mayor and greater economic c ompetition between the races have more white killings of blacks. The same h ypotheses explain black killings of whites, but these killings are less lik ely in cities with black mayors. Police department size does not explain wh ite killings of blacks, but cities with larger departments have fewer black killings of whites. The findings suggest that economic rivalries and conte sts for political influence lead to greater interracial violence.