HOMICIDAL CRIME, CAPITALISM, AND DEMOCRACY

Abstract

This article reviews the debate about a particular type of crime—homicides—and, through a statistical model of principal component analysis and a clustering of 44 countries based on these components, provides evidence about its multi-causal nature. The variables included in the model are, in addition to homicide rate, levels of impunity in each country, levels of inequality, measured by the Palma Index, and trust in the police and justice, as well as the perception that the government meets the demands of its citizens, as proxies of the authorities’ legitimacy. The model manages to account for approximately 80% of the observed variation. Based on a discussion about the causal mechanisms underlying this variation, the article concludes that crime levels are largely a function of the type of capitalism and democracy that exist in each society. This article also highlights the fact that the debate about the causes of violence overlaps with other discussions: one theoretical, about models of social action, and other normative, about what form of social organization might be the fairest.