McLaughlin Jaye Lee, Pound Nicholas
Centre for Culture & Evolution and Division of Psychology, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK.
J Interpers Violence. 2025 Jul;40(13-14):3231-3250. doi: 10.1177/08862605241271379. Epub 2024 Aug 24.
Positive associations between levels of socioeconomic inequality and homicide rates have been reported at various geographical levels (e.g., between countries, states, cities, and neighborhoods within a city). However, the extent to which inequality predicts levels of non-lethal violence has been less frequently studied. The present study was conducted to investigate the association between socioeconomic inequality and levels of non-lethal interpersonal violence across neighborhoods of London during the period 2010 to 2012, using two independent data sources: Metropolitan Police service recorded violent crime and London Ambulance Service recorded assaults. Mean income per person and local life expectancy were included as additional predictors. Following exclusions due to census boundary changes, across 533 London wards, there were positive bivariate associations between both violence measures and a measure of inequality between neighborhoods (census lower layer super output areas [LSOAs]) within a ward. Moreover, there were negative bivariate associations between violence rates and both ward mean income and life expectancy measures for males and females. However, in a regression analysis only inequality and male life expectancy were consistent predictors of rates of interpersonal violence across outcome measures. The results of the present study provide further evidence of an association between levels of economic inequality and rates of interpersonal violence. The findings, for variation in rates of non-lethal violence across small geographical areas (neighborhoods), build on previous research that has mostly focused on rates of lethal violence and has tended to use aggregate measures across larger geographical areas.
社会经济不平等程度与凶杀率之间的正相关关系已在不同地理层面得到报道（例如，国家之间、州之间、城市之间以及城市内的社区之间）。然而，不平等对非致命暴力程度的预测作用却较少受到研究。本研究旨在利用两个独立数据源，调查2010年至2012年期间伦敦各社区社会经济不平等与非致命人际暴力程度之间的关联：伦敦警察厅记录的暴力犯罪以及伦敦救护服务记录的袭击事件。人均收入和当地预期寿命被纳入作为额外的预测因素。由于人口普查边界变化进行排除后，在伦敦的533个选区中，暴力行为衡量指标与选区内部社区间不平等衡量指标（人口普查低层超级输出区[LSOA]）之间存在双变量正相关关系。此外，暴力发生率与选区男性和女性的平均收入以及预期寿命衡量指标之间存在双变量负相关关系。然而，在回归分析中，只有不平等和男性预期寿命是跨结果指标的人际暴力发生率的一致预测因素。本研究结果为经济不平等程度与人际暴力发生率之间的关联提供了进一步证据。这些关于小地理区域（社区）非致命暴力发生率差异的研究结果，建立在以往主要关注致命暴力发生率且倾向于使用更大地理区域汇总指标的研究基础之上。
