{"id":40772,"date":"2011-01-06T11:45:47","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T16:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=40772"},"modified":"2013-11-19T04:42:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T09:42:13","slug":"why-are-more-unequal-nations-more-violent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/01\/06\/why-are-more-unequal-nations-more-violent\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are More Unequal Nations More Violent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In an earlier post we reviewed research by epidemiologists\u00a0Richard Wilkinson<\/a> and\u00a0Kate Pickett<\/a> showing that\u00a0income inequality contributes to a whole host of negative outcomes<\/a>, including higher rates of mental illness, drug use, obesity, infant death, imprisonment, and interpersonal trust.<\/p>\n

In the 3 1\/2-minute video below, Kate Pickett argues that social inequality causes violence by creating status inequalities that those on the bottom respond to with violence.<\/p>\n

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Pickett and Wilkinson’s data is striking, but I’m not sure I buy that low status combined with status-sensitivity instigates violence. \u00a0Sociologists have made this argument; but others have questioned these conclusions.<\/p>\n

Villanova University’s Lance Hannon<\/a>, for example, tested this “subculture of violence” thesis<\/a> as applied to poor African Americans. Using police department homicide data, he found no evidence that Black people were more likely than White people to react to an insult with violence. \u00a0This is swapping race for class, of course (and Hannon doesn’t control for class because the data was limited), but it does suggest that we should think carefully about the kind of argument Pickett is making.<\/p>\n

See Dr. Pickett making similar arguments as to why raising the average national income in developed countries doesn’t make people happier or enable them to live longer<\/a> and how status inequality increases stress<\/a>. \u00a0And see more\u00a0about income inequality and national well-being at\u00a0Equality Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post we reviewed research by epidemiologists\u00a0Richard Wilkinson and\u00a0Kate Pickett showing that\u00a0income inequality contributes to a whole host of negative outcomes, including higher rates of mental illness, drug use, obesity, infant death, imprisonment, and interpersonal trust. In the 3 1\/2-minute video below, Kate Pickett argues that social inequality causes violence by creating status […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,36,260],"class_list":["post-40772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-economics","tag-international-comparisons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40772"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59284,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40772\/revisions\/59284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}