The American homicide rate remains dramatically higher than that in other Western nations. This work focuses on one important phenomenon to explain larger currents in American society. It examines the historical and cross-national dimensions of homicides and evaluates attempts to explain it.

Echoing Durkheim's Suicide, this book focuses on one important phenomenon to explain larger currents in American society. Leonard Beeghley examines the historical and cross-national dimensions of homicides and evaluates previous attempts to explain it. He finds the sources of America's murder rate in the greater availability of guns, the expansion of illegal drug markets, greater racial discrimination, more exposure to violence, and sharper economic inequalities. He deftly blends the evidence related to each of these factors into a well-reasoned sociological analysis of the nature of American society.

Homicide as a routine event
how to understand homicide
homicide in historical and cross-national perspective
the American Dream and homicide - a critique
social structure and homicide
is change possible?