Social Capital and Homicide: Are They Related?

Mariah Justus,* Lynne Cossman and Jacob Souch, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Field (Broad Category): Sociology (Behavioral & Social Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Forensic Science 

With this study, I am mapping social capital and how it is related to homicide rates in the United States. Mapping county rates of social capital and homicide will help us if social capital has an effect on homicide. Social capital is the rate at which a community is more known to each other and how close members of the community are. If I find there is a relationship between social capital and homicide, I can provide that information in a manner to potentially help prevent homicide. I expect that counties with significantly more social capital will also have significantly lower homicide rates. I hypothesize this because more tight-knit communities where people know each other better would have residents who are less interested in killing each other. While studying social capital we can find if there is a correlation between the two points of interest. We can find if having more social capital is associated with higher or lower rates of homicide. 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course