Steven F. Messner's Research Projects

Cross National Trends In Homicide Rate in the Latter Decades of the 20th Century

• This study examines cross-national patterns and trends in levels of homicide. At a descriptive level, we examine trends in homicide over the period extending from 1950 to 2005 -- a time span encompassing more than half a century for nations with complete data. We go beyond prior studies that have examined "raw" homicide trends or trends based on moving averages by applying spline regression. We also assess the hypothesis that increases and decreases in homicide during the latter decades of the 20th century can be explained with reference to a loss of legitimacy of traditional institutions and the re-establishment of new institutional arrangements, focusing on the institution that traditionally has been assigned primary responsibility for informal social control -- the family.

Immigration And The Recent Violent Crime Drop In The U.S.

• This research examines the potential role of immigration in the widely heralded decline in criminal violence in the U. S. over recent years. Various scholars have suggested that, contrary to the claims of the classic Chicago School, large immigrant populations might be associated with lower rather than higher rates of violent crime. A limitation of the research in this area is that it has been based largely on cross-sectional analyses for a restricted range of geographic areas. Using time-series techniques and annual data for metropolitan areas over the 1994-2004 period, we assess the impact of changes in immigration on changes in violent crime rates.

The Crime Drop in comparative perspective: The Impact of the Economy and Imprisonment on American and European Burglary Rates

• This research considers the possibility that similar declines in property crimes in the U. S. and European nations in recent years occurred in tandem because they were brought about by the same conditions: upturns in the economy, as reflected in rising consumer confidence, and growth in imprisonment. We test this hypothesis in a pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis of burglary rates in the U. S. and nine European nations between 1993 and 2006.