Spatial patterns of homicide and political legitimacy in Europe*

Abstract

Political legitimacy, or a state's "right to rule," has been a concern for philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists for centuries. This paper examines the relationship between European states' level of political legitimacy and violence, as represented by their homicide rate. It is theorized that political illegitimacy affects homicide through deteriorating social institutions of control, violating the rules of reciprocity between the state and citizens, and/or creating an environment of "virtual statelessness" that encourages methods of "self-help." Focusing on the modernized societies of Europe, where legitimacy may be more important to maintaining order, the present study reveals two important findings: political legitimate states have significantly lower levels of homicide, and high and low homicide rates in Europe are significantly clustered among post-Soviet states (high) and Western Europe (low).

Democratic Cultural Values as Predictors of Cross-National Homicide Variation in Europe

“…For example, in 2008, Western Europe had the lowest homicide victimization rates with an average of 1.11 per 100,000, followed by Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Anglo-Saxon countries. Central and Eastern Europe had the highest rates with an average of 3.46 per 100,000, with the Baltic countries slightly lower than that (Marshall & Summers, 2012; see also Nivette, 2012). When looking more closely at country-level variation, the rates range from less than 0.50 per 100,000 in the United Kingdom and Finland to more than 15 per 100,000 in Russia (World Health Organization, 2012).…”

Viewing Things Differently: The Dimensions of Public Perceptions of Police Legitimacy

“…Legitimacy, in turn, is shown to explain legal compliance and cooperation with legal authorities (e.g., Engel, ; Jonathan‐Zamir and Weisburd, ; Liebling, with Arnold, ; Murphy and Cherney, , ; Reisig, Bratton, and Gertz, ; Reisig, Wolfe, and Holtfreter, ; Sunshine and Tyler, ). Beyond police and prison studies, evidence shows that state legitimacy is related to levels of, and trends in, violence (Anderson, ; LaFree, ; Nivette, ; Nivette and Eisner, ; Roth, ).…”

Pitfalls of Using Data Portals as Sources for Psychological Research: The Example of Cross-National Homicide Data

“…Third, missingness of homicide data is strongly concentrated geographically, with especially large gaps across the African continent. The estimated data therefore imply that covariates of homicide found in some parts of the world generate unbiased predictions in other regions, an assumption that has been shown to not always hold (Nivette, 2012).…”