The impact of population and economic decline: Examining socio-demographic correlates of homicide in Detroit

This study examined the relationship between neighborhood social ecology and homicide in Detroit, Michigan. Additionally, the research examined the influence of recent population decline in Detroit on homicides through a focus on localized population change at the census tract level. The study findings reveal that the traditional social ecological predictors of crime continue to operate in similar ways to previous studies. However, when the population change variable is introduced to the model, the traditional social ecological predictors are no longer significant. This indicates that population change might be a driving feature of the high homicide rate in Detroit. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.