Economic inequality, life expectancy and interpersonal violence in London neighbourhoods

Abstract

Positive associations between levels of socioeconomic inequality and homicide rates have been reported at various geographical levels (e.g., between countries, states, cities, and neighborhoods within a city). However, the extent to which inequality predicts levels of non-lethal violence has been less frequently studied. The present study was conducted to investigate the association between socioeconomic inequality and levels of non-lethal interpersonal violence across neighborhoods of London during the period 2010 to 2012, using two independent data sources: Metropolitan Police service recorded violent crime and London Ambulance Service recorded assaults. Mean income per person and local life expectancy were included as additional predictors. Following exclusions due to census boundary changes, across 533 London wards, there were positive bivariate associations between both violence measures and a measure of inequality between neighborhoods (census lower layer super output areas [LSOAs]) within a ward. Moreover, there were negative bivariate associations between violence rates and both ward mean income and life expectancy measures for males and females. However, in a regression analysis only inequality and male life expectancy were consistent predictors of rates of interpersonal violence across outcome measures. The results of the present study provide further evidence of an association between levels of economic inequality and rates of interpersonal violence. The findings, for variation in rates of non-lethal violence across small geographical areas (neighborhoods), build on previous research that has mostly focused on rates of lethal violence and has tended to use aggregate measures across larger geographical areas.