Why is the Murder Rate Higher in the South than in Other Parts of the United States? Southern Subculture of Violence or Legacy of Slavery

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/07340168221126982
• Author: Glenn D. Walters
• Date: 01 September 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Why is the Murder Rate Higher

in the South than in Other Parts

of the United States? Southern

Subculture of Violence or

Legacy of Slavery

Glenn D. Walters

1

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test whether higher-than-average rates of homicide in the south-

ern U.S. can be attributed to a southern subculture of violence (SSOV). Analyses revealed that only

when the f‌ive border states were added to the eleven that seceded from the Union was homicide

signif‌icantly elevated in the South. Consistent with the SSOV, this effect was restricted to homicides

in which the victim was White. These results suggest that the SSOV deserves further study and that

the effect be may partially the result of a state’s position on slavery around the time of the Civil War.

Keywords

southern subculture of violence, Confederate States of America, slavery, homicide

There is little question that violent crime, particularly homicide, is more common in states located in

the southern United States than it is in other parts of the country. In calendar year 2019, 48.7% of all

murders and nonnegligent manslaughters were committed in the South, compared to 20.8% in the

Midwest, 19.3% in the West, and 11.2% in the Northeast (FBI, 2020a). A map of the per capita homi-

cide death rate across the 50 states for 2019 clearly indicates that Southern states experience higher

rates of homicide death, as a group, than Northern and Western states (see Figure 1). This has been

explained in several different ways, to include the fact that the average annual ambient temperature,

poverty level, and non-homicidal crime rate are also consistently higher in the South than they are in

other parts of the country (Messner, 1988). Subcultural factors have also been enlisted to explain the

elevated rate of homicidal death in states that were once part of the Confederacy. I begin, however,

with a more general discussion and review of subcultural factors and theories in criminology.

1

Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Glenn D. Walters, Department of Criminal Justice, Kutztown University, 361 Old Main, Kutztown, PA 19530-0730, USA.

Email: walters@kutztown.edu

Article

Criminal Justice Review

2024, Vol. 49(3) 363-374

© 2022 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/07340168221126982

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