Medical Resources and National Homicide Rates: A Cross-National Assessment

Violence is a continuum, and homicide is only one possible consequence. Timely and adequate medical care saves the lives of the victims of violence. Thus, good medical resources are related to low homicide rates in a nation. The current study expands a medical perspective on homicide rates to a cross-national study. This present study employs a regression analysis by using the data on homicide rates and medical resources for 170 nations. The results of the analysis indicate that high infant mortality rates, low health expenditure per capita, and high death rates from road traffic accidents are associated with high homicide rates. The findings suggest that medical resources partially explain the variation of international homicide rates. A group of scholars attempt to test the connection between medical resources and homicide rates (Cooney, 2003; Doerner, 1983, 1988; Doerner and Speir, 1986; Giacopassi and Sparger, 1992; Harris, et al., 2002, Long-Onnen and Cheatwood, 1992). However, the preceding investigations, grounded on the medical thesis, receive weak and inconsistent empirical support. Also, those studies are limited to one geographical area of the United States. The variations of both homicide rates and levels of medical resources may be greater among nations than among different geographical areas in a nation. The purpose of the present study is to extend the existing medical care perspective on homicide to explain differential distribution of homicide rates across nations. Thus, the current research is one of the earliest endeavors to apply a medical proposition on homicide to a cross-national inquiry. Another advantage of this study is its use of a comparatively large homicide data set for 170 nations. In addition, the present analysis includes extensive medical and structural variables. The number of candidate variables initially introduced in the study is nineteen.