American Homicide,   ISBN:9780674035201

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Actually you'll find it's murder most political. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Roth on my show. He presents extremely interesting information and arguments backed by lots of very meticulous, painstaking research. Dr. Roth is a very compassionate and thoughtful man who uses murder, of all things, to help us better comprehend ourselves and our behavior. This book will forever alter your understanding of both murder and politics. Don't miss it!

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This book by Randolph Roth (History and Criminology, Ohio State), presents data from tens of thousands of murder cases from the United States and Europe. A reconstruction has been made of the history of homicide in the colonial and revolutionary periods for New England, New Netherlands, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and eleven counties in Virginia.

It has been shown by this scholar that strong patterns emerged from the data that show connections between increases in homicide rates and changes in peoples' feelings about government and society. Research has been drawn using diaries, letters, and speeches, along with historians' analyses of those sources. It is revealed that some scientists, according to Professor Roth, can measure the impact of gun laws by statistics, which according to this author is by controlling the data.

Qantitative data can be tested; for instance, the increase in racial solidarity among white New Englanders after King Philips was correlated with a decrease in the homicide rate. Many patterns and hypotheses developed, according to Professor Roth, seem to be powerful but difficult to establish.

A concluding chapter entitled "Can Americans' Homicide Be Solved?" was of interest to this reviewer. The data concludes that there is hardly any nation, even if it has a low murder rate, which will be free of homicides forever. More efficient police work, along with shelters and increased therapy for depression and marital abuse are important factors in decreasing homicide.

Quoting from this highly technical book, which would interest mainly quantitative and economic historians and, to a lesser extent, the non-academic community, namely "whether the homicide rate will continue to rise will depend on whether Americans can come up with a new set of policies and a style of leadership which will reunite the nation and restore faith in government."

Reviewed by Claude Ury

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Okay, I admit it. I am only posting this review to balance the poor numbers of Jade Queen's review. C'mon now JQ! You didn't even read the book? Yes, I listened to the interview too and found Professor Roth's comments interesting and well-reasoned. I understand taking issue with an author's conclusions, but, hey, read the book FIRST!

Customer Rating: 

I confess right away that my review is based on Mr. Roth's interview on Radio West, and not on the book itself.
Nevertheless, it seems to me hard to inversely correlate the rather vague notion of "trust in government" with the homicide rate. The more direct and obvious correlation seems to exist between the reintroduction of trained killers (veterans) into society after a war. This seems to me to be the cause in those cases cited by Mr. Roth: Cromwellian England, Napoleonic France, the U.S. after the Civil War, the U.S. after the Vietnam War. A good statistical refutation of my suggestion would be to count only those solved homicides where the perpetrator had no military training, and compare these numbers across all countries in the study.
I still plan to read the book: Mr. Roth's manner seems to be reasonable, scientific, and non-political.