Spending on social and public health services and its association with homicide in the USA: an ecological study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine whether state-level spending on social and public health services is associated with lower rates of homicide in the USA.

Design

Ecological study.

Setting

USA.

Participants

All states in the USA and the District of Columbia for which data were available (n=42).

Primary outcome measure

Homicide rates for each state were abstracted from the US Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting.

Results

After adjusting for potential confounding variables, we found that every $10 000 increase in spending per person living in poverty was associated with 0.87 fewer homicides per 100 000 population or approximately a 16% decrease in the average homicide rate (estimate=-0.87, SE=0.15, p<0.001). Furthermore,

SUBMITTER: Sipsma HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5652551 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature