Income inequality and homicide rates in Canada and the United States

Previous research showing that income inequality (assessed by the Gini inde x) is a predictor, and hence a possible determinant, of homicide rates, whe ther at the cross-national, state, or city level, has been inconclusive bec ause of a negative relationship between economic inequity and average incom e. Comparison across the Canadian provinces provides a test case in which a verage income and the Gini are, instead, positively correlated, and we find that the positive relationship between the Gini and the homicide rate is u ndiminished. Temporal change in the Gini is also shown to be a significant predictor of temporal change in provincial homicide rates. When Canadian pr ovinces and U.S. states are considered together, local levels of income ine quality appear to be sufficient to account for the two countries' radically different national homicide rates.