Economic change and violence in cross-national, regional, and local perspectives

This study examines the relationship between economic conditions and personal violence across three different contexts. It examines the relationship between the economy and both suicide and homicide in South Korea, in a data set of East Asian nations, and in a cross national sample. Regression analyses show that while there is a general inverse relationship between violence and economic conditions, this relationship is dependent on the form of violence and the specific context. In addition state policy efforts moderated some of the effects of the economy on violence.